SALISBURY, Md. – The No. 3 Salisbury
University softball team celebrated its seven seniors on
Wednesday, as they played their last home game on the SU Softball
Field against Catholic University of America. Salisbury defeated
the Cardinals 5-1 and 5-0 to bring its regular season win
streak to 33 victories.
In the first game the Gulls (33-2) would take the early lead
with one run in the bottom of the first but the Cardinals (23-13)
were quick to answer as they too brought in one run in the top of
the second inning. The game would remain tied until Salisbury
opened the gates in the bottom of the fourth to score four runs.
Freshman Carly
Read (Baltimore, Md.) would get things started as she
singled up the middle and advanced to second as senior Amanda
DeMoine (Baltimore, Md.) grounded out to
second. Fellow senior Kelly
Waskewicz (Virginia Beach, Va.) brought home Read as
she singled to left field. The one run would be all that was needed
to secure the win but Salisbury tacked on three more before ending
the inning. Senior Lauren
Brenneman (York, Pa.) would drive home Waskewicz with
a sacrifice fly to right field and senior Ali Ritter
(Belvidere, N.J.) would hit her fourth home run of the season as
she brought in the additional two runs to make it 5-1.
The Sea Gulls' pitching and defense stood strong yet again as
they were able to prevent the Cardinals from scoring in the top of
the sixth as they had runners on the corners with only one out.
Kelly
Leary (Severn, Md.) was dominate as she allowed one
run on six hits, walked one and struck out 11 Cardinal batters.
In game two Salisbury was able to get on the board first in the
bottom of the second inning and continued to bring in runs in the
third, fourth and sixth innings.
The Gulls again battled through a pair of jams, preventing
Catholic from scoring in the top of the fourth inning as they had
runners on second and third with only one out. Sophomore pitcher
Erika
Brittingham (Georgetown, Del.) was able to get a
strike out for the second out and junior Kristin
Lord (Denton, Md.) caught a ball in foul territory to
capture the third out.
With the score 4-0 in Salisbury's favor, Brittingham found
runners on second and third due to a wild pitch but came back with
a vengeance as she struck out the next batter to get Salisbury out
of the jam. Brittingham allowed three hits, walked two and struck
out six batters on the day.
Waskewicz blasted her 51st career home run in the bottom of the
sixth inning which now makes her the number two all-time home run
hitter in Division III softball.
The Sea Gulls will now wait and see where they will be placed
for the first round of the NCAA tournament.
