Nashville, Tenn. -- Freshman Emily Demonte carried a perfect game into the seventh inning en route to earning the victory and Lindsey Bert recorded the final two outs to pick up the save as Furman downed Youngstown State, 5-3, on Saturday night in the Purple and Gold Challenge at Lipscomb's Draper Diamond.

Demonte, who improved to 4-3 in the circle, retired the first 18 batters she faced prior to Sarah Dowd's double down the left field line to open the top of the seventh. Brittney Moffatt singled before Demonte recorded a strikeout of Miranda Castiglione. A walk to Alex Gibson and RBI hits from Maria Lacatena and Cali Mikovich chased Demonte with the score at 5-3.

Bert entered the game and issued a walk to load the bases before fanning the next batter and getting a grounder to second base to end the game.

Demonte allowed three runs on four hits over six and 1/3 innings while fanning four Penguins to pick up the win.

Furman (10-11) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Sophomore Brittany Houston reached on a one-out single to left field, advanced to second base on a wild pitch and scored when she rounded third and continued home on Taylor Vahle's infield single off of the shortstop's glove.

In the fourth, AnnaRose Borrelli singled and pinch runner Lauren Duggar stole second base before scoring on Kalie Hick's single to left field. Pinch runner Sarah Windham stole third and scored on Houston's single through the left side to up the Paladin lead to 3-0.

Furman extended the lead to 4-0 in the fifth inning. Sieara Bishop doubled to right field to open the inning and scored on Borrelli's third hit of the game, a single to left field. A bases loaded walk to Borrelli in the sixth forced in Furman's fifth run.

Borrelli went 3-for-3 with a double, walk and two RBI, while Houston collected two hits.

Paige Geanangel (1-4) took the loss for the Penguins (6-6) after allowing three runs on six hits in three and 2/3 innings of work.

The Paladins conclude tournament play on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. CST versus the Troy Trojans.

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