Greenville, S.C. -- Senior Kalie Hicks belted a two-run homer and sophomore Emily Demonte tossed a complete game with six strikeouts to power Furman past Youngstown State, 4-1, in the finale of the Upstate Classic on Sunday afternoon at Pepsi Stadium.

With the victory, Furman improved to 10-11 on the season, while the Penguins dropped to 2-12.

After Demonte notched back-to-back strikeouts to escape a bases loaded jam in the top half of the first inning, Courtney Jacobs led off Furman's half by reaching on an error and Hicks followed with a two-run blast to left field.

Emma Ogburn and Jacobs reached base on one-out singles in the bottom of the fourth before freshman Casey Bigham laced a double off the third baseman's glove down the left field line to plate a run. Senior Elise Smith increased the lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth with a solo homer to right field.

Demonte gave up just six hits, including a solo homer by Sarah Dowd in the seventh, to up her record to 3-5 on the season. The Sumter, S.C., product fanned six batters and issued just one walk.

Ogburn and Bigham each collected two hits to pace the Paladins 10-hit attack.

Maddi Lusk (1-5) suffered the loss for the Penguins, allowing four runs, three earned, on 10 hits in six innings. She struck out five and walked one batter.

The Paladins return to action at the Puerto Rico Classico March 9-11, in San Juan, P.R. Follow live stats of all five Furman games during the spring break trip at FurmanPaladins.com and Paladinslive.com. Also catch updates on the Paladins' island adventure by following @FurmanSoftball on Twitter.


Upstate Classic  (@ Pepsi Stadium)
Friday
11:00 - Canisius 12, Dayton 4 (6 inn.)
1:00 - Canisius 3, Furman 0
2:00 - Dayton 2, Furman 0
Saturday
11:00 - Radford 3, Youngstown State 1
1:00 - Furman 9, Youngstown State 1 (5 inn.)
3:00 - Radford 2, Furman 1

Sunday
12:00 - Furman 4, Youngstown State 1



Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information