April 2, 2011

Box Score

STATESBORO, Ga. ---- The Samford softball team dropped the first two games of its weekend series at Georgia Southern Saturday. The Eagles used two home runs to edge out Samford, 2-1, in the first game before shutting out the Bulldogs in game two, 5-0.

Samford (7-29, 4-7 SoCon) and Georgia Southern (19-20, 9-2 SoCon) went quietly for five innings in game one before either team plated a run. The Bulldogs got on the board first in the sixth inning when Aaren Fisher walked with the bases loaded to drive in Madeline Baker. The Eagles matched that run in the bottom of the inning with a two-out home run by Mackenzie Williams.

The Eagles retired the Bulldogs quickly after a leadoff walk by Allison Reynolds in the top of the seventh inning, and scored the winning run on a walk-off home run by Tabby Douberley. The Eagle edged out the win, 2-1.

Kayla Shaffer led the Bulldogs in the first game, going 2-for-4 at the plate. Alex Adams, Amanda Jordan and Brianna Chambers also each had a hit. Kayla Burris (4-12) posted a complete-game performance in the circle, giving up two runs on four hits with two walks and an impressive 10 strikeouts.

"I definitely thought Kayla and Nicole pitched two great games today," Samford head coach Stephanie VanBrakle said. "KB kept us in the game and kept them off balance the whole time. We just have to do a better job hitting in the situation and we can't have the bases loaded with no outs and not score."

Four Eagle players had a hit including Williams who went 1-for-3 and Douberley who went 1-for-2. Allie Miles (9-6) pitched a complete game, giving up just one run on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

In game two, Georgia Southern got a jump on the scoring in the bottom of the first inning and plated their first run on an RBI-double by Hanna Ennis. The Eagles added three more runs in the bottom of the third. First, Ennis scored on a throwing error by the Samford third baseman. Then, Douberley hit an RBI single to score Williams followed by Andrea Tarashuk with an RBI double. Ennis brought in the final run for the Eagles in the fourth inning on an RBI-single. GSU shut out Samford, 5-0.

Shaffer and Nicole Bobrowski had the Bulldogs' only two hits of the game. Bobrowski (2-6) also took the loss in the circle, giving up two earned runs on 10 hits with one strikeout.

"Nicole pitched a good game in game two," VanBrakle said. "Defense just gave it away and we didn't hit like we could have."

Ennis led the Eagles, going 3-for-4 at the plate with a run and two RBI. Kelly Burnett also was 2-for-3 while five other GSU players each had a hit as well. Brianna Streetmon (8-8) pitched a complete game and gave up just two hits while striking out five batters and walking one.

The Bulldogs will try to avoid the sweep Sunday in the final game of the series at 12 p.m. CT. A full recap and boxscore will be available on www.samfordsports.com upon the completion of the game.