East Carolina Shuts Down Pitt Community College in Twinbill
October 18, 2014 | Softball
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina softball team recorded a pair of shutouts against Pitt Community College during the fall season Friday evening. The Pirates defeated the Bulldogs, 6-0, in game one and rolled past PCC in the nightcap, 15-0. Both teams donned pink uniforms in support of breast cancer awareness.
"We had a couple of great wins tonight," Head coach Beth Keylon-Randolph stated. "I'm extremely pleased with our pitching. Obviously our hitters did some good things, but our pitchers are doing a great job. We've only had two walks in the games we've played so far. That's very exciting for us, as is throwing all five pitchers."
Freshman right-hander Ashley Cruise turned in a solid performance in the first game as she pitched four innings, allowed two hits and fanned four without surrendering a walk. She retired 10 of the first 11 batters she faced as she shut down the Bulldogs and led the Pirates to a 6-0 victory.
The Pirates' offense came together early as freshman Mary Sloan Bradford led off the contest with a single to left-center and came around to score on a triple off the bat of freshman Nicole Cheek. Cheek plated the second run of the game later in the inning on a throwing error by PCC.
East Carolina tacked on two more runs to its tally in the fourth inning with a lead-off walk followed by back-to-back throwing errors, another walk and a base hit to third. The Pirates added to their total with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings before closing the book on the first game, 6-0.
The second game of the doubleheader saw the Pirates' bats come alive as they pounded out 15 runs on 12 hits. Freshman third baseman Karlie Smith scored three runs, drove in two and belted a home run in the third as she went 1-for-1 with three walks and a stolen base.
After a solid performance in game one, Bradford came back and plated a pair of runs, notched two stolen bases and collected three walks for the Pirates.
In the nightcap, all but two batters came around to score as the Pirates put up four runs in the first and fifth innings, while scoring three in the third and fourth, before capping off the game with one run in the sixth.
"Games like this you can let a lot of things go to the wayside, but we use it as a great practice," Keylon-Randolph explained. "We got to work on a ton of things: base running, different situations and everybody got into hit.
"We're giving our freshman a lot of opportunities and it's exciting to see them step up and perform," Keylon-Randolph continued. "It's important to get the nerves out of the way now because when the big games come, they're going to be pretty nervous. So it's good to get them as much experience as possible."
Senior right-handed pitcher Caroline Umphlett was on-point in the circle as she fanned seven batters without allowing a walk, while giving up three hits in four innings of work to earn the win. She was relieved by sophomore righty Lydia Ritchie and senior southpaw Gabby Andino who combined for three strike outs, two walks and one hit in 3.0 innings pitched.
The Pirates are now 4-0 in the fall season and have outscored their opponents 43-1 in 31 innings of action.
East Carolina concludes the fall season Saturday, October 18, at 1 p.m. with a doubleheader against Louisburg College. The Pirates and the Hurricanes will compete in a 10-inning contest, followed by a seven-inning affair. Admission is free of charge to both games.
