Greenville, S.C. -- Sophomore Lindsey Bert fanned eight batters and allowed only a bad-hop single in the top of the fourth inning, while guiding Furman to a 7-1 victory over East Tennessee State in the finale of a three-game Southern Conference series on Sunday afternoon at Pepsi Stadium.

By salvaging the final game of the series, Furman improved to 18-19 overall and 2-4 in SoCon play. The Bucs dropped to 12-13 overall and 3-3 in the league.

Bert, who upped her record to 10-11 in the circle, fanned four of the first five batters she faced and allowed only a hit batter and a base on balls through the first three innings.

The Paladins put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the first to grab a 1-0 lead. Sieara Bishop lined a triple down the right field line with two outs and scored when AnnaRose Borrelli's grounder to third base was misplayed.

Kalie Hicks, making just her eighth start of the season, hammered an opposite field homer to right field to open the second inning and Bert lined a single off the glove of the pitcher and into center field with two outs in the inning to score Emma Ogburn, who had reached on a double down the line, and up the Paladins' lead to 3-0.

Furman put the first two runners on base in the third and Elise Smith followed with an RBI double into the gap. After a popup by Ogburn, Taylor Collins lined a two-run single through the left side to give Furman a 6-0 cushion.

Back-to-back errors by second baseman Sarah Windham and Bishop allowed ETSU to put runners on first and third with nobody out in the top of the fourth. Taylor Carter followed with a potential double play grounder to shortstop that took a bad hop over Bishop's shoulder for the lone hit of the game and drove in Danielle Knoetze from third. Bert rebounded to get two groundouts to shortstop sandwiched around a strikeout to escape the jam.

The left-hander worked seven innings and struck out eight batters, while holding the Bucs to just one walk. She helped  extend the Paladins' lead to 7-1 in the bottom half of the inning when she beat out an infield hit and pinch runner Courtney Jacobs scored on Hannah Reynolds single to left field three batters later.

Starter Madison Ogle (1-2) suffered the loss for ETSU allowing three runs on four hits in 1.2 innings of work. The Paladins then tallied four runs on five hits in 1.1 innings off of reliever Taylor Carter.

Bert and Bishop each went 2-for-4 at the plate to ignite Furman's 11-hit attack in the series finale. Hicks homered, walked and scored a pair of runs.

The Paladins continue their homestand on Wednesday, April 6, when they host the Charlotte 49ers in a 4 p.m. doubleheader at Pepsi Stadium. Both games of the twinbill will be streamed live on the SoCon Digital Network and live statistics will be available through StatBroadcast. Links to live streaming video and live statistics will be available by logging onto FurmanPaladins.com.


Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information