Southern Miss
South Alabama
Softball Team Falls to South Alabama, 5-3
2/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 24, 2010
MOBILE, Ala. - South Alabama's softball team scored all the runs they needed in the bottom of the first inning as the Jaguars sent nine batters to the plate and scored five run to defeat Southern Miss, 5-3, in a mid-week game.
Southern Miss falls to 7-2 while South Alabama improves to 4-5.
"Once again, we dug ourselves in a hole in the first inning and this time we could get out of it," Head Coach Dobson said. "We had several changes to put some runs on the board but we didn't get the timely hitting that we needed."
Freshman Beth Dietrich (2-1) took the loss for the Golden Eagles giving up five runs on four hits while USA's Morgan Druhan (1-3) earned her first win of the season in allowing only two runs on two hits in 3.1 innings of work. Gabby Luciani came on to pitch the final four innings of shutout ball and struck out five batters.
The Jaguars pushed five runs across when Brittany Fowler led off with a walk and moved to second on a fielder's choice sacrifice by Kelsey Volz. Christin Crocker drew a walk to load the bases. Dietrich retired the next two batters before Meghan Collins had a bases-clearing double to left. The Jaguars added two more runs as Katie McGuire singled to left to score Collins and advance to second on an error. Julie Morton followed with a single to plate Collins.
Southern Miss scored two runs in the top half of the fourth when Megan Hill drew a walk to start the inning. Jill Mathis followed with a single to deep short, moving Hill to second. Christina Roosmalen laced a single down the left field line, scoring Hill with Mathis and Roosmalen moving to third and second on the throw. Kirsten Perry came on to pinch run for Roosmalen. Alexis Hurley followed with the third hit of the inning to plate Mathis and moving Perry to third. The Jaguars came up with a big defensive play as Brandi Alonzo hit a fly ball to center and Perry was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
South Alabama changed pitchers to start the fifth inning, bringing in Beth Pilgrim. The Golden Eagles added another run in the fifth as Lauren Castellvi walked and moved all the way to third when Leslie LeJune lined a base hit into right field, but was out on the playing trying to go to second. Britney then doubled to left, scoring Castellvi to cut the lead to 5-3. Pilgrim then retired the next two batters.
The Eagles got the leadoff batters on base in the sixth and seventh innings but could not push any runs across as Pilgrim was able to retire the side.
Southern Miss returns to action this weekend, hosting the Southern Miss Invitational that features Belmont, Central Arkansas, Jackson State and Indiana. Play gets underway Saturday morning at 9 a.m. with Belmont taking on Jackson State followed by Belmont and Central Arkansas at 11 a.m., Jackson State and Indiana at 2 p.m., followed by Central Arkansas and Southern Miss at 4:30 p.m. and conclude with Southern Miss against Indiana at 7 p.m.
