Southern Miss
UCF
Softball Eagles Fall to UCF 3-0 on Sunday
3/18/2012 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 18, 2012
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss held UCF without a hit for the first four innings but a pair of fielding errors allowed the Knights to plate two runs and hold on for a 3-0 Conference USA softball victory on Sunday at the Southern Miss Softball Complex.
"Our pitchers threw very well today," said co-head coach Jon Malgradi. "Unfortunately, we hit a lot of balls right at players and made some costly errors. Those are plays that, when you are going as fast as we are sometimes, you just have to come up and make."
Beth Dietrich carried a perfect game bid into the fifth inning, retiring the first 13 batters, but a fielding error allowed Hayley Barrow to reach first safely. Following a ground out, Danielle Brewer got the Knights' first hit of the game, a single to right field to bring across the run.
UCF (21-10, 3-2 C-USA) added another unearned run in the sixth as a throwing error allowed Natalie Land to come in from third to make it 2-0.
In the seventh, the Knights made it a 3-0 ball game off a Land single to center field to bring across Madeline Schroeder from second.
Southern Miss (10-14, 2-3 C-USA) got a pair of two-out base runners on in the bottom half of the seventh by way of a pair of UCF errors but were unable to create any offense with their final out.
Mackenzie Audas (10-5) picked up the victory with the complete game showing, scattering four hits and striking out 10 Golden Eagle batters. Beth Dietrich (4-5) suffered the loss. She allowed just two hits and two runs (both unearned).
Next up for the Golden Eagles is a mid-week trip to South Alabama to take on the Jaguars on Wednesday. First pitch from Jaguar Field is set for 6 p.m.
