Eagles Best Furman, 7-0, on Saturday

GREENVILLE, S.C. - Georgia Southern softball moved one step closer to its first regular season Southern Conference Championship since 1996 with a 7-0 win over Furman to open the weekend series on Saturday afternoon. Sarah Purvis (Warner Robins, Ga.) set the Georgia Southern school record for strikeouts in a season by upping her total to 213 this year. Kaitlyn Johnson (Fayetteville, Ga.) hit a pair of doubles and finished the game with four RBIs.

"Congratulations to Sarah (Purvis) for getting the strikeout record," said Head Coach Annie Smith. "She pitched a great game and our bats came through early to give her support. We've got two more tomorrow then we can focus on the SoCon Tournament next weekend."

Georgia Southern improves to 36-17 overall and 20-2 in league play. Furman is 17-32 with a 6-16 record in the Southern Conference. The Eagles can win the conference with two wins on Sunday against Furman or a combination of wins and Chattanooga losses at UNCG this weekend.

The Eagles drew first blood in the first inning, scoring three runs off a 3-RBI double by Johnson. Her knock to the gap in left with the bases loaded pushed Alexa Lewis (Lawrenceville, Ga.), Marie Fogle (Rincon, Ga.) and Mackenzie Williams (Baxley, Ga.) in to score. Later in the frame, Kourtny Thomas (Warner Robins, Ga.) laced a single over the Furman shortstop to score Johnson from third. GSU extended the lead to 5-0 with a double from Tabby Douberley (Clyo, Ga.).

Purvis, the Georgia Southern starting pitcher wrote her name in the record books by surpassing Cary Moone's school record of 206 strikeouts in a season. She set the mark with her third strikeout of the game to start the second inning. Purvis would go on to strike out nine batters in the game.

Georgia Southern caught the scoring fever again in the fifth inning. Fogle opened the frame with a double, followed by an RBI single from Williams. Johnson hit her second RBI double of the game down the left field line to score pinch runner Jorie Walker (Dublin, Ga.). Tarashuk followed suit with a double of her own to move Johnson to third base with no outs. Consecutive outs would end the GSU threat in the fifth with GSU holding a 7-0 advantage.

On her record-breaking day, Purvis tossed her second-consecutive two-hitter as the Eagles shutout the Paladins 7-0. Purvis has 213 strikeouts this season and is five short of moving into 10th place on the Southern Conference single-season strikeouts list.

The 2012 regular season comes to an end on Sunday morning with a 11 a.m. doubleheader from Pepsi Stadium against the Paladins.

Fans can follow their Eagles at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com or receive short updates at facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics or on Google+ at gplus.to/GSAthletics.

Category: Softball

Published on Saturday, 05 May 2012 15:29