Spartanburg, S.C. – The Furman softball team continued its road trip on Tuesday dropping both games of a doubleheader to the USC Upstate Spartans by scores of 1-0 and 5-3 at Cyrill Stadium.
The Paladins fall to 9-15 on the season while the Spartans improve to 26-3 overall.
USC Upstate held on for a 1-0 victory in game one and came back for a 5-3 win during game two.
Game 1 – Furman 0, USC Upstate 1
Alanna Deal recorded two hits and Hannah Houge threw a complete game shutout to give the Spartans a 1-0 win in game one.
Houge (16-2) picked up the win with her complete game performance and gave up four hits on two walks and nine strikeouts.
Lauralee Scott (2-5) took the loss surrendering one run (none earned) on seven hits, two walks and two strikeouts.
Bailey Tanner registered 1.2 scoreless innings of relief on one strikeout.
The game's only run came in the bottom of the second when Celeste Delorenzo scored on Marisa Soterakis' RBI infield single. Peyton Darnell led off the inning with a walk and was pinch run for by Delorenzo, who advanced to third following a Furman error and Deal single. Soterakis delivered the go-ahead single on a 1-2 pitch allowing Delorenzo to score.
Riley Ludlam led the Paladins offensively going 2-for-3 while
Emily Bartlett and
Chrissy Fleming both had one hit.
Deal led all players with two hits for USC Upstate and five different players recorded one.
Game 2 – Furman 3, USC Upstate 5
The Spartans used a five-run bottom of the fifth inning to rally back for a 5-3 victory and complete the doubleheader sweep.
Adison Yoder (2-0) earned the win in relief pitching four scoreless innings and allowed three runs, one walk and three strikeouts.
Sierra Tufts (5-7) suffered the loss throwing six innings and gave up five runs (four earned) on nine hits, no walks and one strikeout. USC Upstate starter Alyssa Kelly surrendered three runs (two earned) over three innings of work.
Furman struck first with a single run in the top of the first to take an early 1-0 lead on Ludlam's RBI double down the left field line. The Paladins extended their lead to 3-0 in the third after plating two runs highlighted by
Natalie Morgan's third home run of the season. Bartlett followed the next at-bat with a double and later scored on
Kaitlyn Laudick's RBI single to right field.
The Spartans answered by scoring five times in their half of the fifth inning to go ahead 5-3. Sarah Price and Madison Lanoux both had RBI singles in the inning while Tiffany Domingue added an RBI ground out and Casey Goguts scored on a single from Soterakis. Lanoux completed the scoring after coming home on a wild pitch.
Bartlett had a team high two hits for Furman while Morgan scored twice and had one RBI along with Ludlam and Laudick. Bartlett extended her on-base streak to 12 consecutive games and collected her seventh multi-hit game this season.
Lanoux posted a 2-for-3 performance at the plate for USC Upstate and tallied one RBI and one run scored. Goguts also went 2-for-3 and scored once.
Up Next
The Paladins begin the Southern Conference portion of their schedule this weekend, March 26-27, traveling to Chattanooga, Tenn. for a three-game series at Chattanooga.
All three games are being streamed via paid subscription on ESPN+ and the ESPN app. Fans can follow the action on www.furmanpaladins.com via live stats. Updates will also be posted on the Furman softball Twitter page (@FurmanSoftball).
