Eagle Softball Thrashes Kennesaw State
4/6/2011 1:41:00 AM | Softball
STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern Softball (21-21, 9-3 SoCon) powered its way back to the .500 mark with a doubleheader sweep over Kennesaw State (20-16, 4-4 A-Sun) on Tuesday (April 5th) afternoon at Eagle Field. Three runs in the sixth inning gave GSU a 4-2 victory in game one. The Eagles crushed three home runs to take game two, 7-2.
Senior Brianna Streetmon (Winder, Ga.) took a no-hitter through five and two-thirds in game two, but the Eagles held on for a combined one-hitter. In the opener, freshman Allie Miles (Dacula, Ga.) became the Southern Conference strikeout leader with 112, adding seven strikeouts in her complete game victory. The win was her 10th of the season.
"I'm happy with the way we responded to adversity in game one to rally and win," said Head Coach Maggie Johnson. "I think today's games will give us some confidence going into the big weekend series with Elon."
-GAME 1-
The Owls raced out to a 2-0 advantage in the second inning, taking advantage of a pair of Georgia Southern fielding errors. With two outs and the bases loaded, a wild throw on Lyndsay Hackett's ground ball to short allowed two runs to score. A ground ball to Miles in the circle retired the Kennesaw State threat in the inning with two runners stranded.
GSU made Kennesaw State pay for a leadoff walk to junior Hanna Ennis (Snellville, Ga.) in the third inning. The Eagle shortstop came in to score from second base on Andrea Tarashuk's (Flemington, N.J.) RBI single up the middle. The run cut Kennesaw State's lead to 2-1.
Georgia Southern took its first lead of the game in the sixth frame off the bat of Marie Fogle (Rincon, Ga.). The Eagles' leading slugger drove in her 29th and 30th runs of the season on a single down the left field line. Her poke brought Alexa Lewis (Lawrenceville, Ga.) and Kelly Burnett (Boynton Beach, Fla.) in to score for a 3-2 GSU lead. Jorie Walker (Dublin, Ga.) scored later in the inning to put the Eagles up 4-2 on a dropped pop-up to the shortstop by Ennis.
Miles shut down the Kennesaw State offense with seven strikeouts and only one walk on four hits in the complete game performance in the circle. The two unearned runs allowed her to lower her team-best ERA to 2.88.
-Game 2-
The Eagle offense gave Streetmon early run support when Ennis took the 3-2 pitch over the right field fence to take a 1-0 lead in he first inning. The solo home run was her third of the season and part of a 4-for-5 performance in the doubleheader.
Fogle doubled the Eagle advantage in the third inning with her seventh home run to lead off an inning this season to right field. The junior's conference-best 13th home run handed the Eagles a 2-0 lead. She is just five home runs shy of matching Megan Smith's (Springfield, Ga.) single-season school record of 18 home runs set last year.
Georgia Southern blew the game open in the fifth, taking advantage of another leadoff walk to Ennis. The junior scored on a sacrifice fly by Mackenzie Williams (Baxley, Ga.). Tarashuk belted her second RBI single up the middle to plate Smith. Burnett brought the final two runs of the inning home on her first home run of the season over the left field fence. For a 6-0 Eagle lead.
The sixth inning began with Georgia Southern's first no-hitter since 2006 still intact. The senior left-hander retired the first two batters, but a fielding error and the ensuing home run ended the no-no bid. The pair of runs put GSU up 6-2.
For the third time in the doubleheader, Georgia Southern took advantage of a leadoff walk, this time issued to Fogle, to score a run. A one-out sacrifice fly by Ennis allowed Fogle to scamper home and tack-on an insurance run, extending the Eagle lead to 7-2.
Smith replaced Streetmon for the final inning and worked a quiet frame to nail-down the combined one-hitter, Georgia Southerns' second of the season. Streetmon went six innings and struck out six with just one walk. The only blemish, a two-run home run, allowed a pair of unearned runs to score. The victory was her ninth of the season and the 47th in her career to move into sole possession of third place on the career wins chart.
The Eagles travel to Elon for a three-game SoCon series this weekend which opens on Saturday (April 9th) at 1 p.m. The weekend's action wraps up on Sunday, April 10th, at 1 p.m. Georgia Southern's next home game is on April 16th against Furman.
Fans may follow all the action of the 2011 Georgia Southern Softball season by visiting GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/softball or check in for scores at twitter.com/GSScores or facebook.com/GSAthletics for updates.
