Southern Miss
Tulsa
Tulsa Completes Series Sweep over Southern Miss on Sunday
3/25/2012 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 25, 2012
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Tulsa took an early six-run lead over Southern Miss to complete the Conference USA weekend sweep, 6-3, on Sunday at the Southern Miss Softball Complex.
"We ended the weekend better than we started," said co-head coach Jon Malgradi. "Our defense played well all weekend and we played catch really well. Unfortunately, we hit some balls right at people again and just had some untimely at-bats."
The Golden Hurricane (22-6, 8-1 C-USA) got on the board first as they scored two in the opening frame. But, it was the four-run second inning surge, led by the bat of Skylar Swanson and her second homer of the weekend that decided Tulsa's 6-3 win.
The Golden Eagles (10-17, 2-7 Conference USA) challenged the early 6-0 lead in the fourth as Leslie LeJune and Taylor Walker tallied back-to-back singles followed by a no-outs tossed-walk to Caroline Walker to load the bases.
Britney Dinelt got the RBI on a fielder's choice to get the Golden Eagles on the board at 6-1. Carissa Turang took a walk and loaded the bases again for Brittany Lilly's hard-to-handle fielder's choice down the third base line, scoring Dinelt and putting runners on the corners for Mackenzie Sher's grounder that brought Turang home.
In the seventh, a triplet of singles from Chanell Thurman, Sher and LeJune posed a two-out bases-loaded rally but no one was able to come across as Tulsa completed the sweep in consecutive seasons.
Courtney Ramos (4-7) picked up the loss on two innings of work, allowing five hits, four runs, one walk and a strikeout. Beth Dietrich relieved Ramos in the third, allowing seven hits, two runs, three strikeouts and no walks.
Lacey Middlebrooks (8-2) earned her second victory of the weekend on the complete game performance. She scattered six hits and allowed three runs (two earned) with four strikeouts.
Southern Miss will return to action on Tuesday when they step out of conference play and travel to Ridgeland, Miss., to take on in-state rival Ole Miss. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
