CHARLESTON, S.C. — App State Softball opened its five-game run through the Cougar Classic with a 3-0 shutout of Western Carolina on Friday before homestanding College of Charleston won 5-4 against the Mountaineers in a back-and-forth second game.
App State (6-3) will play two more games Saturday, with a 10 a.m. matchup against UConn and a 3 p.m. rematch against Charleston. The Mountaineers face UConn again Sunday at 11 a.m.
GAME 1 RECAP
Delani Buckner (3-0) took a one-hit shutout into the top of the seventh inning, having retired 14 of the last 15 batters as she took the mound for the final frame.
Western Carolina loaded the bases with one out, but right fielder
Kayt Houston caught a flyball and threw home to catcher
Baylee Morton, who applied a tag at the plate for a game-ending double play.
Buckner, who pitched the first four innings in a five-inning, one-hit shutout of North Carolina Central in her last start, finished with eight strikeouts as the Mountaineers beat a Catamounts club that entered the day with an 8-4 record.
App State broke a scoreless tie with a fourth-inning run Friday morning, as
Addie Wray delivered an RBI single with two away to bring home pinch-runner
Addison Jones. She had stolen second base after entering the game following a
McKenzie McCullen single.
The Mountaineers added two key runs in the fifth with a pair of bases-loaded RBIs that didn't require hits.
Houston's leadoff single, followed by
Emily Parrott reaching on an error and Morton drawing her second walk of the game, loaded the bases for
Mary Pierce Barnes. She drew a four-pitch walk to make the score 2-0, and App State increased its lead when McCullen was hit by the first pitch of the next at-bat.
Buckner stranded a runner at second in the first inning, then stranded two runners in scoring position by finishing the second with a strikeout and a pop-out to second. That ignited her dominant stretch leading up to the final frame.
She struck out two batters in a perfect third inning and had two straight strikeouts after allowing a leadoff walk in the fourth.
GAME 2 RECAP
Pinch-hitter
Camryn Jones' two-run single gave App State a 3-2 lead over Charleston in the top of the sixth inning, and the Cougars scored twice in the bottom half of the inning to reclaim the lead before the Mountaineers tied the score with a run in the top of the seventh inning.
Charleston won the game with an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning, as a runner reached third with one out and scored on an RBI single to left off.
The Cougars scored twice in the first inning, but a pair of strikeouts from starting pitcher
Kaylie Northrop and a groundout — all with two runners in scoring position — limited the damage.
Kennedy Upshire homered in the fifth inning to cut App State's deficit to 2-1, and the Mountaineers took the lead in a sixth inning that had potential for more production.
Morton walked and Barnes singled before McCullen loaded the bases with another single. Jones' single through the right side put App State in front with nobody out and kept the bases loaded. A comebacker to the mound in the next at-bat resulted in rundowns and a double play that erased runners who had begun the sequence on third and second.
A two-out RBI single off Northrop and a bases-loaded walk on a 3-2 offering from reliever
Sejal Neas contributed to Charleston (4-7) turning a one-run deficit into a one-run lead. The Mountaineers pulled even in the seventh as Parrott advanced to second on a leadoff error, moved to third on a Morton groundout and scored when Barnes put an 0-2 pitch in play for a groundout.
