LEBANON, Tenn. – The University of Pikeville softball team won back-to-back Mid-South Conference games for the second time this season as it shutout Cumberland 4-0 in the opener before holding on for a 4-2 win in game two.
UPIKE will have a small break before heading back on the road to play Shawnee State at 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday in Portsmouth, Ohio.
UPIKE 4, Cumberland 0
Slow and steady wins the race and that's just the tactic UPIKE used to win the opener 4-0, scoring single runs in the first, third, fifth and sixth innings.
The Bears (15-23, 6-12 MSC) outhit the Phoenix (14-24-1, 2-16) 12-6, helping starter Alexandra Quill (4-8) earn the win in the circle with one of the best outings of her career. Quill posted a complete-game shutout, scattering just six hits and striking out one batter.
Logan Cline paced UPIKE at the plate, going 3 for 4 with two RBIs and a double. Jill Bohnert and Lee Griffin chipped in with two hits each.
Hannah Absher led off the game reaching on an error, stole second base and came home for what would be the winning run on a single by Bohnert. In the third inning, Cline roped an RBI single up the middle, scoring Jordan Gentry who had also led off the inning by reaching on an error.
Lindsay Floyd and Cline rounded out the scoring with RBI hits in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively.
Kaitlin Kralj (4-8) lasted 5 2/3 innings in the loss, scattering 11 hits for four runs with two strikeouts.
UPIKE 4, Cumberland 2
Hannah Skaggs shined in game two, allowing just two runs on four hits with five strikeouts in a complete-game showing. While none of her teammates tallied an extra-base hit, she got the support she needed from Gentry, Floyd and Lee Griffin with two hits each. Cumberland didn't help itself either, committing five errors in the field.
Cumberland got the scoring started in game two when Tyra Graham smacked a home run to left field in the bottom of the third inning.
With starter Alexa Snyder cruising in the circle, UPIKE had to find a way to get to her and it started in the fourth inning with the help of a trio of errors. Lee Griffin laid down a sacrifice bunt, but it couldn't be fielded, allowing her and Floyd to stay on the base paths.
Absher followed that up with a bunt single to load the bases, followed by Gentry's single that drove in a pair of runs as the Cumberland centerfielder threw the ball away. One batter later, Bohnert hit a sac fly to score Gentry from third and Absher scored as well when the throw home got past the catcher.
UPIKE was now up 4-1 as Synder suddenly had four runs allowed on six hits with seven strikeouts after such a promising start. The Bears didn't score again after their busy fourth, but it didn't matter as the Phoenix came up with just one more run the rest of the way when Tessa Tomaselli scored on Taylor Woodring's single in the seventh.
Snyder dropped to 4-5 with the loss as she allowed four runs while striking out seven batter against two walks.
-UPIKE-
