IPFW Box Score
Pitt Box Score
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Senior Sarah Funston struck out 10 batters and allowed only one hit in the opener, and senior hurler Alex Gjevre followed with a two-hitter in the second contest as the Morehead State softball took down IPFW 9-1 and Pittsburgh 3-0 in the Comfort Inn and Suites Invitational on Friday morning.
The Eagles improved to 3-7 on the season.
In the opener against IPFW, senior catcher
Bianca Cardenas ended the contest in the sixth inning with a walk-off three-run home run to put the eight-run rule in effect. The Eagles put three spots on the scoreboard in the first, second and sixth innings.
IPFW scored an unearned run in the first inning as Sarah Swanson beat the tag at the plate after a ball was muffed at third base. Sara Hopwood grounded out on the play to second base, but the throw across the dirt trying to gun down Swanson ricocheted off third baseman Rebecca Butler's glove and into left field. A close play at the plate went in favor of the Mastodons, however.
The lead was short-lived as the Eagles loaded the bases in the bottom of the first. Freshman
Amber Riddle rifled a shot to second base that got past Heather Genovese and allowed two runs to come home. Sophomore designated player
Kayla Brill later laid down a perfect sacrifice squeeze bunt that scored pinch runner Taylor Sherritt.
The Eagles pushed their advantage to 6-1 in the second. Butler picked up an RBI single, scoring freshman infielder
Anna Sommer, while senior outfielder
Courtney Seiler scored the fifth tally via a throwing error. Brill added another RBI on an infield ground with the bases loaded and one out.
Freshman
Elizabeth Wagner started the sixth with a single and was lifted for pinch runner
Sam Sparks. After a strikeout, Butler got her third hit of the game with a one-bagger to left field. Cardenas took a pitch from Mastodon pitcher Rachel Staschuk and hammered it deep over the wall in straightaway center field - her first homer of the year.
Funston (2-2) worked through the Mastodon order with little distress. She walked two but erased those with the 10 strikeouts. Courtney Cronin took the loss for IPFW, allowing six runs in just an inning-and-a-third of work.
Butler was 3-for-4, while Wagner and Seiler each went 2-for-4.
In the win over Pitt, Gjevre (1-4) picked up her first win of the year pitching a complete game two-hitter with seven strikeouts. Seiler was 2-for-3 at the plate, while Butler provided all three RBI on a bases-clearing double in the fifth inning.
Gjevre took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before allowing a double. She also worked out of a one-out bases-loaded jam in the sixth by coaxing a fly out and recording a third-out strikeout.
The Eagles loaded the bases in the fifth as pinch hitter
Bethany Ellis laced a single to right field, Wagner walked, and Seiler singled to left field. Butler crushed Pitt pitcher Alyssa O'Connell's third offering off the wall in right center field to score all three Eagles.
MSU finishes play in the tournament Sunday at 2:15 p.m. against Pitt and after that against Georgetown College.
