Southern Miss
Southern
Softball Team Defeats Southern University, 9-1
2/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 16, 2010
BATON ROUGE, La. - Freshman Gabby Luciani (1-0) pitched four innings of one-hit ball and struck out seven batters in recording her first win of the season and helping Southern Miss moved to 5-0.
"We came out and played well today," Coach Howard Dobson said. "We got a very good start out of our freshman Gabby Luciani. She pitched four innings with seven strike outs. She performed like we expected her to hit her spots and let her defense play behind her. We worked on trying to be aggressive around the strike zone."
The Golden Eagles got on the board first in the first inning on a Christina Roosmalen single that scored Megan Hill, who was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a Jill Mathis' fielder's choice. Mathis advanced to third on the throw and then scored when Logan James singled to right field.
"I was happy with the way were swung the bats," Dobson said. "We kind of coasted there for a little while and we didn't come out and force the issue. We weren't as aggressive at the plate as we liked to have been. We hit the ball hard, but they made some plays. We hit the ball right at them and they did a good job of knocking them down and kept us from scoring. We jumped out early and we kept chipping away at the ball and ended up with 14 hits. It's nice to see our players come in and compete and prepare ourselves for the weekend."
Southern Miss added another run in the second after Leslie LeJune singled to third then scored from first an error by the left fielder.
Southern Miss stretched its lead in the fourth, scoring a pair of runs to push the lead to 5-0. Lauren Castellvi led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a bunt single by LeJune. Britney Dinelt reached on a fielder's choice. LeJune and Dinelt both stole third and second, respectively. LeJune scored on sacrifice fly by Hill for her career 119 becoming the all-time leader. Mathis then followed with a double to score Dinelt.
Southern (0-1) finally got on the board when Kesha Tauriac reached base on an Eagle error and advanced to second. Aruba Nicholas grounded out to first and Tauriac advanced to third then scored on a passed ball.
The Golden Eagles continued to extend the lead in the fifth with one out and Hurley doubled to center field and Kirstin Perry came on to pinch run. Thurman was hit by a pitch. With two out, LeJune singled to center to score Perry. Dinelt followed with a single up the middle to score Thurman. LeJune then scored after a throw error by the catcher and a 5-1 lead.
Southern Miss added another run in the sixth when Roosmalen led off the inning with a double and advanced to third on a bunt single by Casey Jo Matthews. Roosmalen then scored on a ground out by Hurley.
Beth Dietrich worked the last two innings, giving up two hits and striking out three batters. Caroline Myers took to the loss for the Jaguars (0-1), pitching 3.2 innings giving up nine hits and five runs.
Southern Miss returns to the diamond this weekend when the Golden Eagles host the Mizuno Classic on Saturday and Sunday. The tournament features Notre Dame, Louisiana Tech, Alcorn State and Stephen F. Austin.
