Game 1 box score |
Game 2 box score
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Tuesday's Atlantic Sun Conference opener didn't go quite the way the Northern Kentucky University softball team would have hoped, as the Norse fell in a pair of games against USC Upstate.
The opener finished with a 3-1 score before the doubleheader wrapped up with a 10-2 Upstate victory. The Norse, now 6-14 overall and 0-2 in A-Sun play, will look to avoid the series sweep tomorrow when they meet the Spartans for the final game of the three-game conference series. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
A two-run home run by Maddison Kieffer put Upstate (17-2, 3-1 A-Sun) ahead in the fourth inning in Game 1. Kendall Settlemyre added an RBI single later in the frame to give the Spartans their only scoring inning against NKU hurler
Kelley Benhase, who struck out two batters in falling to 5-6 on the year.
The Norse got a run back in the top of the fifth inning starting with
Natalie Papi reaching on a hit by pitch to lead off the inning. After Papi was lifted for pinch runner
Alesa Collinsworth, who reached second on a
Michelle Carson groundout and scored on
Dana Jarboe's RBI single through the right side.
NKU had runners in scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings, but could not plate another run against Upstate starter Jamie Ujvari, who struck out a career-high 10 batters in improving to 7-0 on the season.
Game 2 started positively for the Norse, as
Dee Dee Davis got a one-out single in the top of the first inning before
Emily Schwaeble launched her third home run of the season over the left-field wall to stake an early 2-0 lead for NKU.
The lead was short lived, however, as the first four Spartans to the plate reached base in the bottom of the first en route to a three-run inning for Upstate. The Spartans scored three more in the third on a Cheyenne Griffin three-run homer before plating four more runs in the sixth inning to invoke the eight-run rule.
Schwaeble finished with two of NKU's five hits on the game while
KC Straley extended her hitting streak to six games, going 1-for-3 in each game of the twin bill.
