February 15, 2011
Columbus State Softball Takes Down Eagles 2-1
COLUMBUS – Kristi Bullard fired a complete game two-hitter and Columbus State scored a pair of runs in the second inning to lift CSU to a 2-1 victory over visiting Carson-Newman Tuesday afternoon at Cougar Field. The Lady Cougars improve to 7-2 on the year while Carson-Newman falls to 5-4.
With Columbus State scoring a season-low two runs, Bullard was tremendous all afternoon allowing just one run, which was unearned in the third inning. Ahead in the count 1-2, Bullard hit Leah Price with a changeup allowing just her second base runner of the afternoon. An errant throw on Cassidy Skeen's sacrifice bunt attempt allowed her to reach and Price to advance to third base. Skeen stole second base during the next at-bat and after a pump fake to second base, the throw went down to third base. The throw got away from the third baseman allowing the lone Eagle run to cross.
The lead didn't last long as the Lady Cougars responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame. With one out, Kara Gordon hit a shot to the shortstop who was unable to handle it allowing her to reach. Casey Googe then laced a double in the right-centerfield gap scoring Gordon all the way from first and Googe moved to third on the relay to home plate. Next up was Rocky Hemmer who drew a walk. When she reached first, Hemmer darted for second base drawing the attention of the pitcher. Carson-Newman got her in a run down allowing Googe to race for home and slide in head first safely giving CSU a 2-1 advantage.
CSU threatened in the next inning to add on to their lead but were unable to do so. Morgan Knight doubled to left-centerfield and moved up to third on Keeley Kennedy's infield single. Gordon hit a grounder to the C-N first baseman who fired it home to get Morgan Knight out at the plate. A groundout to the next batter ended the rally. The Lady Cougars had the bases loaded in the fifth inning as well but were unable to bring one across.
The Eagles never got more than one runner on base after the third inning as Bullard shut the door on them. She allowed just two hits and three walks while striking out two.
Googe was 3-for-4 at the plate scoring once and driving in a run as well. Kennedy also had a multi-hit game going 2-for-4.
Skeen and Caitlyn Lance had the only two hits for Carson-Newman while Price scored the lone run. Mary Shealy was the hard luck loser tossing six solid innings. She gave up two runs (one earned) on nine hits and five walks.
