Greenville, S.C. – East Tennessee State completed a three-game Southern Conference series sweep of Furman with an 8-6 victory over the Paladins in Sunday afternoon's series finale at Pepsi Stadium.
The Buccaneer took advantage of five Furman errors on the day to erase an early 3-0 deficit and got a pair of late home runs to improve to 15-11 overall and 3-3 in league play. Furman dropped to 5-28 overall and 0-6 in the SoCon.
With the game tied 6-6, ETSU's Hailey Porter led off the top of the sixth inning with a solo home run to left field to give the Bucs a 7-6 lead. Furman put runners on first and second base with nobody out in the bottom of the frame when
AB Cipalla reached on a leadoff single and
Sylvia Burroughs worked a walk against reliever Chelsee Toon.
Rachel Hawkins worked ahead in the count 3-0, but Toon rallied to record a strikeout before inducing a fielder's choice and a flyout to retire the side.
After Payton Moore doubled the ETSU advantage with a solo homer to left-center with two outs in the top of the seventh, Gabby Fowler set down the Paladins in order in the bottom of the seventh to secure her first save of the year.
Cameron Lauretta (1-0), who worked 1.1 innings of hitless relief earned the victory for the Bucs. ETSU's bullpen tossed 3.1 innings of scoreless relief after Furman totaled six runs on seven hits against starter Marissa Barnes over 3.2 innings.
Furman took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first when pitcher
Kristyn Embler helped her own cause with a two-run triple and scored on a wild pitch. Porter delivered a two-run single in the top of the second to get the Bucs on the board before scoring the tying run on Riley Maartens sacrifice bunt. Furman regained the advantage on
Kate Stoltzfus' RBI double in the bottom of the second, but ETSU took a 6-4 lead with a single run in the third inning and a pair of runs in the fourth on four Furman errors.
Trailing 6-4, Furman loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the fourth ahead of
Rachel Hawkins' two-run double to the base of the center field wall that tied the game. A walk gave Furman a pair of base runners, but Lauretta stranded the potential go-ahead run on base.
Embler (4-9) absorbed the loss surrendering eight runs on eight hits over 6.2 innings in the circle. She walked one batter and fanned three. At the plate, the freshman collected two hits and drove in two runs. Stoltzfus and Cipalla both finished 2-for-4 at the plate.
Porter finished 2-for-3 with a homer, base on balls, three runs, and three RBI to power ETSU to the victory.
Furman opens a three-game SoCon series at UNC Greensboro with a doubleheader on Friday afternoon.
Minuteman Press is the Official Sponsor of Furman Athletics press releases.
