Southern Miss
UCF
Golden Eagle Softballers Split Conference Doubleheader on Saturday with UCF
3/17/2012 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 17, 2012
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Courtney Ramos threw five innings of shutout softball to lead the Golden Eagles (10-12, 2-3 C-USA) to victory as they split a doubleheader with Conference USA foe UCF (20-10, 2-3 C-USA) at the Southern Miss Softball Complex on Saturday.
"It was nice to come out and get a big conference victory," said co-head coach Kirsten Voak. "Leslie LeJune continued her hot streak and our pitchers kept them off the scoreboard in all but two innings today. Tomorrow, we just have to come out and find our spots again."
In the opener, the Knights scored six runs all in the fifth inning to earn the 6-0 shutout victory. It was just the second time this season that the Golden Eagles had been shutout.
Ramos' outing in the nightcap then propelled the Golden Eagles to a 9-5 victory, the first for Southern Miss over the Knights since 2009, snapping a nine-game UCF winning streak.
Game 1:
Pitcher Beth Dietrich had a perfect game going through three innings, with five strikeouts, and had retired 10 straight batters but a two-out double to left center from UCF's Alena Murgatroyd broke up the bid.
The Knights carried the offense into the fifth inning where they tallied six runs on five hits, aided by one Southern Miss error, to go up 6-0.
In the seventh, the Knights loaded the bases with no outs but stranded all three as Dietrich got three straights to get out of the inning unscathed.
Mackenzie Audas (9-5) retired 12 of the final 14 batters she faced and allowed just three hits to pick up the win while the one big UCF inning doomed the Eagles and Dietrich (4-4) suffered the loss. She finished the game with six strikeouts and did not issue a walk.
Game 2:
Vanessa Perez got the Knights on the board first in the second inning with a two-out single to center field to bring in two runs. UCF added three more runs in the inning to build a 5-0 lead.
In the bottom half of the frame, two Golden Eagles reached on back-to-back errors by the Knights and with runners at second and third, Leslie LeJune singled into left field to make it a 5-2 game.
After a wild pitch made it 5-3, Chanell Thurman got the Eagles back into the ballgame with a double off the left field wall to bring in two runs and knot the game up.
Southern Miss extended their scoring with four runs in the fourth, highlighted by Leslie LeJune's leadoff homer to center field to put the Black and Gold up 9-5. It was the first roundtripper of the year for the pre-season All-C-USA team member.
Ramos closed it out in the seventh to earn the victory and give the Golden Eagles a split for the day. She pitched 5.1 innings and scattered three hits while striking out three.
The Golden Eagles and Knights will wrap up their series tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the Southern Miss Softball Complex.
