Women’s softball traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday to compete in the Wingate by Wyndham Invitational. The Bucs went 4-1 with their only loss being against Virginia Tech. The Bucs now have an overall record of 6-1-2.
The Bucs faced the Detroit Mercy Titans on Friday, and earned their first win of the weekend. Despite the Titans’ early look to score, junior Kelley Schmidt (Norcross, Georgia) was able to punch out two of the next three batters, getting the Bucs out of trouble.
Freshman Jordan Durbin (Mechanicsville, Virginia) went up to hit what would soon put the Bucs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third inning. Durbin would single up the middle as sophomore Julia Fritz (Glen Allen, Virginia) went on to third. Fritz would go on to score in the following play.
“Offensively we were really good,” said head coach Brad Irwin. “For the most part, we got production from players throughout the lineup.”
The Bucs also saw Charleston Southern on Friday and took the win at 4-3. The Bucs scored four runs in the first two innings, and took the 4-0 advantage early. Senior Taylor Wright (Erwin, Tennessee) put out a double in the first inning, and junior Kylie Toler (Bradenton, Florida) plated an RBI single in the second inning.
Charleston Southern climbed the scoreboard in the bottom half of the second with a one-out home run and pulled within one run until freshman pitcher Taylor Boling (Jasper, Georgia) got the final out on her.
“We executed defensively a lot of things that we did not do very well our opening weekend,” said Irwin.
The Bucs faced the Titans and Charleston Southern a second time on Saturday. The Bucs gained two more wins as they beat the Titans 2-1 and Charleston Southern 12-0.
On the last day of the invitational the Bucs faced Virginia Tech and saw their first loss of the weekend. The Hokies scored the first two runs of the first and second inning before the Bucs plated three in the bottom half.
The Bucs took the lead 3-2 as senior Tiffany Laughren (Erwin, Tennessee) gave the first run, an RBI double to center field. Sophomore Kelly Warren (Mechanicsville, Virginia) provided an RBI single to bat, plating Durbin.
“The last game against Virginia Tech, a couple of hits went a couple of different ways, and it was a close ball game, but I thought we had a good show against them as well,” said Irwin.
The Hokies were able to take back the advantage, tallying six runs over the next three innings. The final score left the Bucs trailing 8-3.
“We made a lot of plays with only a couple of errors in all five games combined,” said Irwin.
Women’s softball is set to compete in the GWU Softball Tournament in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, starting this Friday.
