Saturday, March 24, 2007                      

    PC Opens SAC Season With Doubleheader Sweep Of Catawba

CLINTON, S.C. – Presbyterian College’s softball team opened its South Atlantic Conference season with a doubleheader sweep of Catawba on Saturday afternoon at the PC Softball Complex. The Lady Blue Hose took game one 2-1 and then earned a 7-3 victory in game two.

The two wins mark the first two conference victories in the Dave Majeski era and improve the team to an overall 22-7. Catawba is now 30-11 on the 2007 season.

Presbyterian next travels to Wingate University for its first road conference doubleheader of the season at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28.

Game One

Neither Catawba or Presbyterian hit the softball well in the first game, combining for just seven hits.

Presbyterian did out-hit the Lady Indians 4-3, but a strong offensive game in the first meeting between the two teams this year was not needed due to a stellar outing in the circle by Paige Cassady.

Cassady (10-4) garnered her 10th win of her freshman season in the game, striking out 10 Lady Indians en route to double-digit wins.

The Orlando, Fla. native pitched all seven innings in the game and allowed only one run on three hits.

The Lady Blue Hose received all the cushion that they and Cassady needed with a run each in the first and second innings.

Laura Tate scored the first run of the game for the Lady Blue Hose in the bottom of the first when she scored on a throwing error by the Catawba rightfielder after Jessica Peterka (Sarasota, Fla.) singled to right field.

One inning later in the bottom of the second, PC’s Erin Stewart hit a solo home run to left center field to give PC a 2-0 advantage.

Catawba placed a run on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth when Allie Marshall (Pleasant Garden, N.C.) scored after an RBI single through the left side by Hillary Hampton (Salisbury, N.C.) to set the eventual final score at 2-1.

Overall, PC was led in the first game by Peterka, who finished the first game going 2-for-3 from the plate for the Lady Blue Hose. Three players collected hits for Catawba in the game with Kathryn Geouge (Canton, N.C.), Marshall and Hampton each collecting one of the three hits in the contest for Catawba.

Lindsay Ettinger (Pasadena, Md.) pitched all six innings for the Lady Indians in the loss, striking out nine Lady Blue Hose.

Game Two

Catawba struck first in the second game, plating a run in the top of the third inning to make it 1-0.

Presbyterian responded to the run with five runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning. All five of the runs came with two outs.

The Lady Blue Hose scored its first run of the game when Rachel Bailey singled to left center field to bring in Jenny Box, who had began the inning by singling to the shortstop off Catawba starting pitcher Rachel Christian (Buckingham, Va.).

Peterka then singled in to bring in Bailey and give the Lady Blue Hose their first lead of the contest at 2-1.

With runners at the corners and two outs, PC’s Cassady then hit a three-run dinger to left field off Catawba reliever Tiffany Farley (Greensboro, N.C.), who had just replaced Christian and was facing her first batter in Cassady.

The home run would prove to give the Lady Blue Hose enough leverage as they would only allow two more runs to Catawba and plate two more of their own.

Michelle Ramsden (Brooks, Ga.) gave the Lady Blue Hose its sixth run when she tripled in Stewart. Bailey then tallied her second RBI of the game shortly thereafter to set the final score at 7-3.

PC starting pitcher Mary Gordon (Vernon, Conn.) improved to 12-2 on the season in the pitcher’s circle with the Lady Blue Hose win.

She fanned three batters in 4.1 innings pitched before giving way to Megan Wheelus (Florence, S.C.), who dealed the final 2.2 innings for the Lady Blue Hose, striking out two and allowing just two hits.


                   Box Score Game 1          Box Score Game 2