ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University softball team went 1-1 against UVa.-Wise Wednesday afternoon in Mountain East Conference play at the CU Softball Field as UVa.-Wise took game one, 6-0, before CU rallied to win the nightcap 4-3 in eight innings.
Concord improves to 13-21 overall and 10-14 in the league while the Cavaliers move to 24-16 on the season and 13-11 in the MEC.
Game 1: UVa.-Wise 6 – Concord 0
UVa.-Wise's Taylor Brandts limited CU to three hits and struck out 10 batters to propel the Cavaliers to a game one win.
The visitors struck for four runs in their first at-bat to open up an early lead and added two more in the top of the seventh.
Junior first baseman
Lauren Blunt, sophomore pitcher / first baseman
Rachel Pritchard and sophomore second baseman / shortstop
Jenna Witt accounted for the Concord hits.
Sophomore pitcher / outfielder
Darby Fitzpatrick (8-7) gave up four earned runs and struck out two in the complete-game effort.
Game 2: Concord 4 – UVa.-Wise 3 (Eight Innings)
Blunt slid underneath a tag at home plate with one out in the eighth as Concord edged the Cavaliers on a fielder's choice off the bat of sophomore utility
Amber Stokes.
Like game one, UVa.-Wise raced out to a 2-0 lead on a run-scoring triple in the first inning. However, the Maroon and Gray responded with two scores in the second.
Back-to-back one-out doubles by Stokes and senior third
Alycea Watson got the rally started before Watson raced around the bases on a base hit from junior outfielder
Abby Beatty.
After a scoreless third inning, Stokes pushed CU in front with a solo home run—her third of the season. But the Cavaliers had an answer for the Concord lead as they scored in the fifth on an illegal pitch to tie the contest, 3-3.
UVa.-Wise's Brandts and freshman pitcher
Tara Williams traded zeros in relief work in the sixth and seventh to send the game to extra innings.
The Cavaliers appeared poised to take the lead in the top of the eight after they loaded the bases with two outs, but Fitzpatrick, who had taken over in the circle to start the inning, induced an inning-ending popup to Witt at shortstop.
Blunt came through with a one-out double to start the eighth and CU's rally. The Oak Creek, Wisconsin native would move to third on a nine-pitch at-bat single from Pritchard.
With the game-winning run 60 feet away, Stokes slapped a groundball that took UVa.-Wise's shortstop Nikki Smith towards second base. Unable to turn two because of the speedy Stokes, Smith fired home where Blunt beat out the throw to lift CU to a 4-3 victory.
Stokes had two hits and two RBI in the nightcap to pace the Concord offense. Blunt and Fitzpatrick each had two hits that included a double. Beatty joined the trio with two hits of her own. Both of Stokes' hits went for extra bases.
As a team, six of CU's 12 hits were for extra bases with Witt chipping in her 16
th double of the season. Watson added a double as well.
Fitzpatrick (9-7) earned the win in game two as she tossed a scoreless eighth inning. Fitzpatrick and Williams combined to limit UVa.-Wise to two hits over the final 3.1 innings of the contest. Pritchard gave up three earned runs in 4.2 innings in the circle.
Concord begins a four-game road trip 2:00 p.m. Saturday at Urbana.
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