Game 1: Furman 10, Georgia State 4

Game 2: Georgia State 4, Furman 0

Greenville, S.C. -- Furman rallied from a 4-2 deficit in game one to down Georgia State, 10-4, and earn a doubleheader split with the Panthers on Wednesday afternoon at Pepsi Stadium. Georgia State blanked the Paladins, 4-0, in the nightcap.

GAME 1
The Paladins combined to score eight runs in the fourth and fifth innings to power past the Panthers, 10-4, in game one.

After Kensey Caldwell gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead in the first on a two-run double, Candace Johnson reached on a leadoff single in the bottom of the frame and trimmed the margin to 2-1 by scoring on a two-out error. Pitcher Lindsey Bert walked to start the bottom of the third and scored the tying run on Elise Smith's two-out, RBI double into the gap.

Georgia State regained the lead on Reagan Morgan's two-out, two-run single up the middle in the top of the fourth, but the Paladins answered quickly. An error and Taylor Collins single put two runners on and Johnson followed a fielder's choice with an RBI single to score Collins. After Bert drew a base on balls, Sieara Bishop lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to drive in the tying run. AnnaRose Borrelli followed with a sharp single through the right side to plate Johnson and hand the Paladins a 5-4 lead.

Furman put the game away in the bottom of the fifth. Emma Ogburn walked, Sarah Windham singled and Collins walked to load the bases with nobody out. Back-to-back wild pitches by relievers Chelsea Stanfield and Taylor Thorpe allowed two runs to score and Kalie Hicks followed with a pinch-hit double to drive in a third run. Two batters later, Bert doubled down the left field line to up the lead to 9-4 and Borrelli singled to right field to increase the Furman advantage to 10-4.

Bert limited Georgia State's potent offense to four runs on seven hits in a complete-game effort to improve to 9-10 in the circle. The left-hander issued four walks, but finished with eight strikeouts.

Johnson, Borrelli and Collins each collected two hits apiece for Furman.

Annie Davis suffered the loss for the Panthers to fall to 4-5. She allowed three runs, just one earned, on three hits while recording just two outs in relief of starter Amanda Chance.


GAME 2
Georgia State plated three runs in the first inning and Katie Worley and Chance combined on a seven-hit shutout to pace the Panthers to a 4-0 victory in game two.

Ivie Drake drew a leadoff walk for the Panthers and moved to second when Morgan's chopper down the third base line was ruled to be a fair ball. Following a wild pitch, Drake scored when Taylor Anderson reached on a Paladin error and Mandy Blackwell plated the second Panther run two batters later on a slow bouncer to the pitcher. Arden Jobe's double down the line upped the Georgia State lead to 3-0 after just half an inning.

Worley (8-4) tossed four scoreless innings and allowed only three hits, while Chance scattered four hits in three innings of relief to pick up her second save.

The Paladins stranded 11 runners in game two and went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position against Worley and Chance.

Brown went 3-for-4 to lead the Panthers offense and Blackwell and Jobe added two hits each. Borrelli went 2-for-3 with a double for the Paladins.

Starter Alex Sappington (2-2) suffered the loss for Furman allowing two earned runs on seven hits in 4.1 innings. She walked two and fanned four.

Furman returns to action this weekend when it hosts ETSU in a three-game Southern Conference series.  Links to live streaming video and live statistics will be available by logging onto FurmanPaladins.com.


Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information