University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
East Carolina
Softball Drops Series Finale, 5-0
5/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 2, 2010
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The Southern Miss softball team dropped the Conference USA series finale, 5-0, to East Carolina Sunday afternoon.
Southern Miss threatened in the opening inning as Megan Hill had a two-single and stole third. Jill Mathis reached on a pass ball and Hill moved to third, but Toni Paisley struck out the final batter to end the threat.
The Pirates took the early 2-0 lead when Charina Sumner led off the home half of the inning with a walk and stole second. Christina Merrida drew a walk and both runners moved up a base on Kaui Tom's sacrifice bunt. Sumner then scored on a pass ball for ECU's first run. Marina Gusman-Brown then singled up the middle to score Merrida. Gusman-Brown stole second and moved to third as Vanessa Moreno singled to left, but Gabby Luciani got Sissy Jimenz to fly out to left and struck out Jordan Nicole to end the inning.
ECU struck again with a run in the second. Cristen Aona doubled down the left field line and moved to third on a sac bunt by Kai Clark. Aona came around to score on a Golden Eagle error, increasing the lead to 3-0.
East Carolina put two more runs on the board in the third as Gusman-Brown reached on an infield singled and stole second. Moreno was hit by pitch and Jimenez moved the runners over with a sac bunt. Gusman-Brown scored off a ground out to first and Moreno scored on an error.
In the visitor's half of the fourth, Jill Mathis opened the inning with a walk and moved to second on a Danielle LaPointe single, but Southern Miss could not push a run across as the Pirates was able to get out of the inning with no runs allowed.
Over the last three innings, Pirate starter Paisley (24-9) who earned the win, allowed only one hit in the three-hit shutout and struck out six.
Luciani (10-10) took the loss, allowing five runs, three earned on six hits. The Eagles drop to 22-25 (6-15). Courtney Ramos who relieved Luciani pitched the final 3.1 innings and gave up only two hits.
ECU (34-16, 13-5) currently sit in first-place in league standings as they enter the final week of regular season play.
Southern Miss plays a doubleheader against Northwestern State on Wednesday, May 5, with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m.
