University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Softball Drops Series Finale to UTEP, 8-3
4/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 3, 2010
EL PASO, Texas - The Southern Miss softball lost its third straight conference series falling to UTEP, 8-3, in the series finale.
Southern Miss falls to 14-17 overall and 0-9 in league play while UTEP improved to 26-12 and 8-4.
Stacie Townsend (22-7) picked up her third win in the circle for the Miners this weekend, struck out eight Golden Eagle batters and allowed three runs on seven hits. USM's Gabby Luciani (5-7) took the loss.
Southern Miss left 10 runners on base on the day including five in scoring positions.
UTEP's Kia Moore put the Miners on the board first in the bottom of the third when she hit her first career home run over right.
Southern Miss started the fourth with a leadoff single by Christina Roosmalen and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Danielle LaPointe. With one out, Chanell Thurman drew a walk to put runners on first and second, but Townsend then struck out Lauren Castellvi and got Brandi Alonzo to ground out to end the inning.
UTEP put together a big fourth inning scoring six runs aided by a grand slam by Townsend. With one out, Courtney Ware drew a walk and moved to second when Villanueva was hit by a pitch. Kayla Oranger singled to right to load the bases. UTEP got its first run of the inning when Kelynn Frye singled to short. The second run came courtesy of a walk by Moore. Dietrich then came in relief for Luciani, eventually struck out Chelsea Troupe before Townsend homered to left center field to clear the bases.
The Golden Eagles came back in the top the fifth to put runs on the board. Leslie LeJune collected her second hit of the game with a leadoff single to right. Britney Dinelt then doubled to left to score LeJune from first. Megan Hill then singled to center to score Dinelt and was able to move all the way to third on an error by the centerfielder. The Eagles added another hit when Roosmalen singled to third. The Eagles added a final run when pinch runner came around to score off a throwing error by third.
UTEP put one more run up when Oranger singled and advanced to third when the Golden Eagles committed an error. Oranger scored on a sacrifice fly to left.
Southern Miss steps out of conference play to host Ole Miss in a single game in Ridgeland at the Freedom Ridge Park with the first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. Tickets prices are $5 and free to children 8-and-under and will be available at the gate.