GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Furman softball team dropped a midweek doubleheader to the USC Upstate Spartans by scores of 6-1 and 8-3 Wednesday evening at Pepsi Stadium.
Furman drops to 5-11 on the season while USC Upstate improves to 15-1 overall.
Spartan starter Sierra Maness tossed a complete game to earn the win in game one after surrendering an unearned run on three hits, one walk, and six strikeouts.
Lauralee Scott got the start for the Paladins and took the loss giving up six runs (five earned), three walks, and four strikeouts over 6.1 innings of work.
USC Upstate broke the game open with a pair of two-run innings in the sixth and seventh. Leading 2-0, the Spartans got an RBI groundout from Amie Johnson and Georgia Preddy followed with an RBI single to right field. In the top of the seventh, Carson Shaw plated Emily Stern with her single to left field, and Sophia Kardatzke, who doubled down the left field line two batters earlier, came home on a wild pitch by Furman reliever
Lily O'Bryan.
USC Upstate plated a run in the top of the first when Abigail Pippen's RBI single to right field brought home Taliyah Thomas, who led off the game with an infield single. The Spartans added another run in the fourth on Alanna Deal's RBI single to left field.
Madison Petty was responsible for the Paladins' lone run when her RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth to right field scored
Jordynn Lawrence. Lawrence led off the frame reaching on one of two USC Upstate errors.
Lawrence was one of three Furman players to register a hit in the contest along with
Kiley Perry and
Kate Stoltzfus.
Thomas, Kardatzke, and Shaw all recorded two hits for the Spartans, and five different players drove in a run.
In game two, Maddie Drerup pitched a complete game for USC Upstate, picking up the win after allowing three runs (two earned) on eight hits, one walk, and five strikeouts. Paladin starter
Emme Buzhardt threw four innings to suffer the loss while surrendering five runs (three earned) on five hits, one walk, and three strikeouts.
Pippen gave the Spartans an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first before Furman responded in its half of the second inning when Perry hit her first home run of the season, a two-run blast, to lead 2-1.
The teams traded runs in the third, including
Sylvia Burroughs' RBI sacrifice fly, before USC Upstate scored three runs each in the fourth and sixth. In the top of the fourth, two scored when Johnson reached on a Paladin error and Denver Lauer drove home Johnson with her ground out. Kardatzke highlighted the sixth inning with her two-RBI single and Pippen contributed an RBI sacrifice fly.
Caitlin Goldwait went 3-for-4 with a run scored to lead Furman offensively while Perry had a team high two RBI.
Thomas led the Spartans with three hits and three runs scored. Three different players totaled two RBI apiece.
The Paladins are back in action this weekend when they travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to compete in the T-Mobile Crimson Classic.
