April 25, 2009

Game 1

Game 2

Greenville, S.C. - Hannah Bradley and Stephanie Mihaly combined on a three-hit shutout as Furman blanked Western Carolina 5-0 to complete a Southern Conference softball doubleheader sweep of the Catamounts Saturday afternoon at Pepsi Stadium. The Paladins notched a 2-1 victory in game one.

With the sweep, Furman improved to 19-25 overall and 9-10 in the SoCon while Western Carolina slipped to 11-30 overall and 7-13 in the league.

Bradley scattered three hits over two innings before Mihaly tossed five no-hit innings of relief to improve to 8-5 in the circle. The Seneca, S.C., product fanned two and issued just one walk on the day.

The Furman offense provided a five-run first inning to give the Paladins control early. Stephanie Field and Abby Robertson drew walks to start the frame and Stephanie Cushing loaded the bases with a single. Morgan Hughey followed with a double down the left field line to plate two runs and Kate Termini followed a sacrifice fly by Lana Mackey by doubling to left field to score Hughey. Meredith Mielke capped the five-run inning with a double off of the centerfielder's glove to score Termini.

Mielke went 2-for-3 with a double and RBI while Hughey collected two RBIs in the game one victory. Starter Chere Monday (0-3) was tagged with the loss after surrendering five runs on four hits in just 2/3 innings of work.

In game one, Mackey (10-12) tossed a complete game allowing just one run on five hits while fanning eight Catamounts to earn the 2-1 victory.

Furman took a 1-0 lead in the fourth as Mackey drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a sacrifice, advanced to third on a Jessie Homesley single and scored on Katie Michaels' ground out. After WCU evened the game at 1-1 on Kristen Gay's RBI single in the fifth, Furman answered with seventh-inning heroics. Field singled back through the middle to open the inning and moved to second on Robertson's school-record 60th career sacrifice bunt. Two batters later, Hughey legged out an infield single and shortstop Chelsea Schaffer's throw to first was wild allowing Field to score the game-winning run.

Katie King (5-14) suffered the loss for Western Carolina. She allowed one earned run on six hits in 6 2/3 innings.

The Paladins and Catamounts conclude the three-game weekend series with a single game on Sunday. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.