Saturday, March 26, 2005

JOHNSON CITY, TENN. (March 25, 2005) - In the final game of the opening Southern Conference series for the Lady Bucs softball squad, the visiting Georgia Southern Eagles took the 1-0 victory this afternoon at Metro Kiwanis Park.  With the loss, ETSU falls to 13-19, 1-2 SoCon for the year, while the Eagles improve to 15-21, 2-1 SoCon with the victory.

The Eagles were the first to strike when Aurora Johnson scored the first GSU run in the bottom of the opening inning of the afternoon match-up.  The GSU pitching staff managed to hold the Lady Bucs hitless until the bottom of the second inning when ETSU's Mary Beth Hazelwood (Knoxville, Tenn.) singled to give the Bucs their first base runner of the afternoon.  After a Briana Knight (Brier, Wa) strikeout, Hazelwood placed herself in scoring position stealing second, however ETSU's Amanda Haverman (Kirkwood, Mo.) wasn't able to connect on a called third strike, as GSU downed the Bucs scoring threat in the second.

Janine Sprague (Hillsborough, N.C.) continued her hot offensive streak with a two-out triple in the bottom of the third, however GSU's Logan Free forced Lady Bucs centerfielder Dani Spetar (Knoxville, Tenn.) into the groundout ending yet another Bucs scoring threat in the bottom of the third.

ETSU had their best scoring chance of the afternoon in the bottom of the fourth when Lindsay Lane (Erwin, Tenn.) singled to open the inning.  After Stephanie Gaynord (Manassas, V.) reached on a fielder's choice, a GSU error on a Lady Bucs single sent Gaynord to third.  After a Hazelwood stolen base, with runners on second and third, the Lady Bucs offense wasn't able to take advantage, and the GSU defense managed to hold the slight 1-0 advantage. 

Although the Lady Bucs offense continued to battle, the visiting Eagles held the 1-0 advantage and capture their second SoCon win of the weekend.  Leading the way for the Bucs was the trio of Sprague, Lane and Hazelwood, who each tallied one hit for the afternoon, while ETSU pitcher Courtney Jenkins (Knoxville, Tenn.) allowed just three hits with seven strikeouts on the day.

ETSU will returns to action this March 31 when they host non-conference foe Middle Tennessee State in a 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm doubleheader at Metro Kiwanis Park.