Nashville, Tenn. -- Furman plated a school-record 12 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning en route to a 17-7 victory over Indiana State in the opening game of Lipscomb University's Purple and Gold Challenge on Friday afternoon at Draper Diamond.

Furman struck first in the bottom of the first inning on Sieara Bishop's solo homer to center field before Indiana State (3-7) took advantage of a dropped fly ball in center by the Paladins with two outs in the top of the second as the Sycamores took a 2-1 lead.

Bishop walked to open the bottom of the third inning and Hannah Reynolds followed with a single before Anna Rose Borrelli crushed a three-run homer over the left-center field fence to give the Paladins a 4-2 lead.  Emma Ogburn followed with her SoCon-leading eighth double of the year and stretched the lead to 5-2 when she scored on Kalie Hicks sacrifice fly to right field.

The Paladins (8-11) sent 16 batters to the plate and recorded eight hits in the bottom of the fourth. Two singles and a base on balls loaded the bases for Furman. Reynolds and Borrelli worked walks to force in runs and Ogburn singled in a third run ahead of Hick's bases loaded free pass. Courtney Jacobs drove in a run with a single to left field and Brittany Houston singled off of the glove of the shortstop to plate two runs. Andrea Abbatiello and Taylor Collins laced back-to-back run scoring doubles and Bishop capped the 12-run frame with a two-run blast to center field for her second roundtripper of the day.

Indiana State tallied five unearned runs off of Paladin reliever Alex Sappington in the top of the fifth with the help of two errors and five walks, but starter Emily Demonte reentered to end the game.

Demonte allowed just two unearned runs in four innings to improve to 3-3 in the circle. Bishop went 2-for-2 with a pair of homers, pair of walks and four runs, while Borrelli reached base all three times and drove in four runs.

Bailey Benefiel (1-3) took the loss for Indiana State allowing all 17 runs on 14 hits. She issued eight walks and struck out just one batter.

The Paladins return to action at 5:30 p.m. CST/6:30 p.m. EST when they face Atlantic Sun Conference preseason favorite and tournament host Lipscomb.

Live statistics will be available for each game of the Purple and Gold Challenge via StatBroadcast by logging onto FurmanPaladins.com. Fans can follow updates through Twitter by following @FurmanSoftball.



Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information