March 21, 2015 UMES v. Howard Box Score (Game 2)
WASHINGTON- After a long spring break southern rodeo, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) Softball Team prepared for their Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) opener against the Howard (HU) Lady Bison. The squad split the doubleheader as they dropped game one, 2-0, but won game two, 6-5.
As a result, the Lady Hawks moved to 3-14 (1-1 MEAC) while Howard went to 7-18 (1-1 MEAC) on the season.
UMES registered only six hits in the second contest, but made each one count. Junior Vanessa Gomez (Belleville, N.J.) notched her seventh multi-hit performance, going 2-of-4 with a RBI and run scored. Fellow junior Trenece Nash (Decatur, Ga.) delivered the biggest hit as she belted a shot into the stands. The Georgia-native tallied a game-high three RBIs in the victory.
Howard got on the board first after a Lady Hawk error in the first, 1-0. For the next three innings, UMES freshman pitcher Adrienne Guerra (Monrovia, Calif.) and the Lady Bison's Alex Flynn tossed scoreless softball until the fifth.
Kaitlyn Hitch (Delmar, Del.) led off the fifth with a walk, followed by a single from Allison Anderson (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Hitch reached third on a throwing error to put runners on the corners. Then, Hitch scored the tying run on a wild pitch, 1-1. With one away, Gomez doubled to centerfield and gave UMES their first lead of the game, 2-1. Next at-bat, Alexis Hudson (Laurel, Del.) bunt single advanced the runner and then she stole second. With runners on second and third, senior Morgan King (Danville, Ill.) singled and drove in Gomez to give the Lady Hawks a 3-0 advantage. Next up, Nash delivered a three-run blast and helped the club take a 6-1 lead.
In the bottom fifth, Howard responded with a rally of their own. HU manufactured four runs on five hits and trimmed the Lady Hawks margin down to one, 6-5. Despite the Lady Bison's rally, Hitch came in relief and held Howard's bats in check. The Delmar-product faced 11 batters in 2.2 innings and scattered only three hits in her first save on the season.
For the Lady Bison, they recorded 11 hits and four players earned two hits or more in a losing effort.
In the first game, Abria Tinsley (Sewell, N.J.) had a solid outing and gave the Lady Hawks a chance to win. Tinsley threw 5.1 innings with three strikeouts and two earned runs. Offensively, Maryland Eastern Shore was held to three hits as Howard's Janessa Flynn put on a clinic.
For five consecutive innings, both pitchers kept the batters unbalanced and confused. In the bottom six, back-to-back homers from HU's Imani Ballard and Dominique Lawrence was enough as they won, 2-0.
For Howard, Flynn pitched a complete game for the Lady Bison, going 7.0 innings while striking out four batters in the win.
Tomorrow's rubber match begins at 12 p.m. at the Washington National's Youth Junior Park.
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