CARY, N.C. — The North Carolina Central University softball team was shutout before giving up seven runs in the final two innings of close second game to lose both ends of its home-opening doubleheader to Robert Morris University by scores of 4-0 and 10-3 on Thursday at Thomas Brooks Park.
Senior first baseman
Joirea Dumas hit her first home run of the season and junior catcher
Madison Mifsud extended her hit streak to four games to pace NCCU on a day where the twin bill started out warm under the sunny sky and finished in cold temperatures at night.
NC Central (0-7 Overall) will conclude its series with Robert Morris (2-0) with another doubleheader with first pitch on Friday slated for 10 a.m.
GAME ONE: Robert Morris 4, NC Central 0
Junior pitcher Dana Vatakis (1-0) kept the Eagles off the scoreboard to earn the complete-game victory. Vatakis limited NCCU to just three hits.
Senior
Kiara Hurley once again kept the Eagles in another low scoring game by allowing just two earned runs in her seven innings of work from the pitcher's circle. Hurley had a game-high six strikeouts.
The Colonials got on the board with two unearned runs in the second before a couple of late solo home runs off the bats of a pair of freshmen in Catalina Saxen and Charlotte Grover doubled up the final margin of victory.
Mifsud ripped NCCU's only extra-base hit with a deep double to center with two outs in the fourth.
GAME TWO: Robert Morris 10, NC Central 3
The Eagles held an early 1-nil lead and a bases-loaded walk drawn by Mifsud tied the score 3-3 after five innings, but Robert Morris scored seven runs on seven hits and three walks over the final two innings to pull away late in the nightcap.
Sophomore Ariana Garroway paced the victors with two hits and three RBI, including a two-run homer in the fourth that gave the Colonials a brief 3-2 edge.
Mifsud supplied NCCU with the initial lead with an RBI-single in the first. She then drew her free pass with wo outs in the fifth to even the score at 3-3. Mifsud has now hit safely in six out of seven games.
However, the Eagles committed a couple of errors in both games and a throwing error in the sixth help the Colonials pull away as three of RMU's four runs scored that frame were unearned.
Dumas accounted for the other maroon and gray run when she launched her solo blast over the fence in left with two outs in the third. Dumas hit two home runs over 16 games in her first season with the Eagles in 2020.
Any chance of a maroon and gray rally was thwarted by double plays in both the sixth and seventh innings, which aided in sophomore pitcher Rachael Rhinehart earning the complete-game victory for Robert Morris. Rhinehart (1-0) gave up just two earned runs on four hits over seven innings, while striking out four Eagles. She also scored twice to help her own cause.
