Posted: Mar 01, 2015
AUGUSTA, Ga. --- The Tusculum College
softball team dropped a pair of games to Georgia Regents University
of Augusta on Sunday afternoon (March 1) in Augusta, Georgia. The
Jaguars took the first contest 2-1 before securing the sweep with a
12-4 victory in game two.
Tusculum's record falls to 3-7 on the season while GRU Augusta
improves to 8-2. The Pioneers will be back in action on Wednesday
(March 4) when they play host to Lees-McRae College. The first game
of the twinbill will begin at 3 p.m.
Game 1: GRU Augusta 2, Tusculum 1 (Box
Score)
Jaguars' pitcher Paige Deschaine out-dueled Pioneers' starter
Eliza Davis in GRU Augusta's 2-1 victory over Tusculum on
Sunday.
Deschaine (4-1) pitched a gem, striking out 15 batters and
giving up just two hits, two walks, and one earned run. Davis (2-3)
was dealt the loss after surrendering five hits and four walks,
while striking out two and giving up just two earned runs.
Senior infielder Kaytlin Stroinski was 1-for-2 at the plate
with an RBI single and a walk, while junior outfielder Carolyn
Williamson had a double and scored a run. The Jaguars' Brianna
Dickens had a solo homer, while Molly Walton had two hits in three
trips to the plate with an RBI.
Walton opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with an
RBI single that scored Hannah Wilson, who opened the frame with a
walk and stolen base. GRU Augusta doubled its lead with Dickens'
homer in the bottom of the second.
After threatening in the top half of the first inning,
Williamson hit a one-out double in the top of the second. She
quickly came around to score on Stroinski's single in the next
at-bat to cut the lead to 2-1. Deshaine retired the Pioneers in
order in the next three innings, but TC put the tying run in
scoring position in the top of the seventh. However, Deshaine
struck out the final two batters to seal the one-run victory.
Game 2: GRU Augusta 12, Tusculum 4 (6) (Box
Score)
GRU Augusta had 11 hits and capitalized on seven Tusculum
errors in a 12-4 victory over the Pioneers in game two. Williamson
was 2-for-2 at the plate with an RBI, while Stroinski had a two-run
homerun.
Haley Birkle (4-1) earned the win in the circle after
scattering six hits and four earned runs between three strikeouts
in six innings of work. Pioneer starter (0-3) Rachel Medley took
the loss despite just two earned runs and three strikeouts.
Stroinski put the Pioneers on the board with her two-run shot
in the top of the first that scored senior third baseman Nicole
Ball, who opened the game with a single. The Jags put a run in the
score column in their half of the first, and took a 3-2 lead with a
pair of runs in the bottom of the second. TC tied the game at 3-3
off the bat of Williamson, who doubled home Ball from first
base.
GRU Augusta answered TC's score with a run of its own in the
bottom of the third, and put two more runs up in the bottom of the
fourth to take a 6-3 lead. Sophomore catcher Treslyn Reese drew a
bases-loaded walk for an RBI in the top of the fifth off Birkle,
and senior second baseman Alix Kruel tallied her lone hit of the
day earlier in the frame as the Pioneers cut the deficit to
6-4.
However, the Jaguars struck for five runs in the bottom of the
sixth and invoked the eight-run mercy rule, which ended the game an
inning early. Brooke Stephens smashed a three-run homer in the
inning and Caitlyn Glenn had an RBI double off Tusculum freshman
pitcher Cayla Cecil.
Glenn finished the day with a 3-for-4 effort at the plate with
a pair of RBIs, while Mallory Ferguson and Kristen Bagley
registered two hits apiece.