Softball Completes Series Sweep with 5-2 Win Over Elon
3/10/2013 8:12:21 PM | Softball
BURLINGTON, N.C. – Georgia Southern Softball clinched a series sweep with a 5-2 win over Elon on Sunday afternoon. It was the third-straight SoCon series sweep dating back to last season. The Eagles tallied 19 runs off 30 hits in the series which opens defense of Georgia Southern’s 2012 SoCon Regular Season Championship.
“It was another good team win,” said Head Coach Annie Smith. “We got some timely hitting and a couple of great pitching outings by Sarah Purvis and Allie Miles. We found hard and did a lot of good things, so it’s good to get the sweep because they are hard to come by.
Kourtny Thomas got the Eagles (14-10, 3-0 SoCon) off to a powerful start with a home run down the line in left. She tallied her seventh home run of the season and drove in her 13th run of the season on the play. Elon (9-9, 0-3 SoCon) answered in the bottom of the first by scoring a pair of unearned runs of their own to tie the game at 2-2.
In the third inning, GSU took advantage of an Elon error to plate leadoff hitter Brianna McLendon. A sacrifice fly by Shelby Morrill to centerfield allowed McLendon to score from third and give the Eagles a 3-2 lead.
An inning later, third baseman Andrea Tarashuk lashed a leadoff double and scored later in the inning on a Breigh Findlay RBI single to left. Findlay, who made her first career starts this weekend, posted her second career RBI on the play.
Starting pitcher Sarah Purvis stymied the Phoenix allowing just three hits through five innings of work. She struck out seven batters, but got into a jam in the sixth inning. Allie Miles came on and fanned four of the final six outs to pick up her third save of both the season and this week.
GSU plated an insurance run in the seventh as a Tabby Douberley ground out pushed pinch runner Dominique Grossman in to score and give the Eagles a 5-2 win.
Next weekend, Georgia Southern Softball travels to play in the FSU Invitational in Tallahassee, Fla. against Florida State and Minnesota beginning on Saturday a 2 p.m. The Eagles then travel to face LSU on Tuesday, March 19th, in Baton Rouge.
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