Among all the sporting events that have been happening on campus the softball team had a showing with a two-game series against the Presbyterian College Blue Hose Wednesday at Cardinal Park.ETSU would have liked to win this series to build confidence for the next series scheduled against Lipscomb and Belmont. Both of those teams are in the Atlantic Sun Conference with the Lady Bucs.

The first game started with one Blue Hose player on first, Taylor Staten powered a pitch by ETSU’s Jessica Duncan over the fence for a two-run home run, giving Blue Hose a two-run lead after the top of the first.

Presbyterian College (PC) didn’t ease up. In the next inning a single hit by Morgan Durham to left field give PC a 3-0 lead.

Then Blue Hose got a single shot home run in the top of the sixth inning and put the game out of ETSU’s reach, 4-0 PC.

“They (ETSU) had a couple of good hits but they couldn’t string them together,” said T.J. King, an ETSU student.

Leslie Hensley took the win for the Blue Hose improving to 4-2 with a shutout, giving up only six hits and striking out five times.

Jessica Duncan got the loss for ETSU moving to 5-5 and giving up four runs on eight hits and striking out eight times.

The second game for ETSU started out in the favor of the Lady Bucs when Chenice Cason was singled home in the bottom of the first giving ETSU a 1-0 lead.

The final score going into the last inning of the game was 1-0 ETSU but the Blue Hose fought back in the top of the seventh.

The comeback for Blue Hose started when Rachel Parker was walked and soon after a sacrifice hit by Brittany Howell advanced Parker to second base.

Katie Anderson took Parker home with a ripped single up the middle tying the game.

A double by Krysten Handy put two PC players in scoring position and after a passed ball Anderson scored from third base giving the Blue Hose its first lead of the second game.

That wasn’t all for the Blue Hose after a deep fly ball scored by Handy giving PC a 3-1 lead.

After Morgan Durham walked ETSU put in senior Darci Gilbert as pitcher to finish the game.

The Lady Bucs didn’t lose heart in this sudden change of events. They came out swinging in the bottom of the seventh inning and after a couple of base hits the tying run was on first with two outs.

Then a popped-up foul was caught by Taylor Staten ending the game, 3-1 PC.

“Yes we are playing badly but going into big conference games in Nashville we can learn a lot from these losses,” said Darci Gilbert, pitcher/infielder for the Bucs.

“We learned to play all seven innings of the game and to play to our potential.”

The Lady Bucs now focus on Atlantic Sun opponents, traveling to Nashville to play both Lipscomb and Belmont in the upcoming week.

Author