GREENSBORO, N.C. – The North Carolina Central University softball team lost a pair of games on day two of the UNCG Spartan Classic, falling to Rutgers University, 6-0, in the morning and Brown University, 5-2, in the early afternoon at the UNCG Softball Stadium on Saturday.
The Lady Eagles (0-14) will play two more games in the Spartan Classic on Sunday with a rematch against Rutgers at 10 a.m. and a showdown against host UNCG in the finale at 3 p.m.
Rutgers 6, N.C. Central 0 Junior
Jenny Tracy was 2 for 2 with a walk but she was left stranded on second base all three times as the Lady Eagles were held scoreless for a fifth consecutive time in a 6-0 loss to Rutgers (4-12).
Junior starting pitcher
Jennifer Allison kept the Scarlet Knights off the board for the first five innings before a two-run homer by senior shortstop Melanie Slowinski put the designated visitors ahead in the top of the sixth.
The first four Scarlet Knight batters reached base in the seventh and they all scored to account for final margin of victory.
Tracy had the Lady Eagles only extra-base hit with a double to right in the fourth. Senior
Casey Hargett matched Tracy with two base hits. NCCU left a total of six runners on base, including four in scoring position.
The Lady Eagles best chance to score came in the sixth when senior
Markell Wylie, Tracy and Hargett all singled to load the bases. However, junior reliever Shayla Sweeney struck out the next two NCCU batters to wiggle out of the jam.
Sweeney then fanned three more Lady Eagles in the seventh after Rutgers tacked on four more runs to earn her first save of the season. Sweeney recorded all six of her outs with strikeouts in her two innings of work. Senior Dresden Maddox (1-5) tossed the first five innings and also posted a half dozen K's.
Brown 5, N.C. Central 2 Wylie was 2 for 3 with a walk and two runs scored from the leadoff spot but NCCU was held to just one other hit as Brown (6-2) edged the Lady Eagles, 5-2.
After the two teams traded unearned runs in the first, the Bears scored three runs on four hits in the bottom of the second to put the designated hosts ahead for good.
Wylie scored the contests first run of the game before an out was recorded. She walked to leadoff, moved to second on another base on balls drawn by sophomore
Danyelle Noland and then scored on a fielding error on a ball put into play by Tracy.
NCCU pulled within two at 4-2 with its second run the fifth. Wylie reached on an infield single and eventually scored after Brown committed its second and third errors.
The Bears added an insurance run in the home half of the fifth on an RBI-double by junior Christina Andrews. Brown totaled nine hits with senior Janet Leung and sophomore Emily Springfield both tallying two base knocks.
Allison (0-5) hurled her second straight complete game on the day and had the Lady Eagles other hit with an infield popup that went off the diving catcher. She allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits and one walk. Brown junior counterpart Gina Chieffallo (2-0) went the distance for the win, scattering three hits over seven innings with four strikeouts.
