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Box Score 2 NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – The No. 11 Salisbury University softball team dropped a pair of one-run contests at No. 14 Christopher Newport University on Tuesday afternoon, falling 1-0 in the first game and 4-3, in eight innings, in the second.
Salisbury (3-3) got a runner into scoring position three times in the first game, with perhaps its best chance coming in the top of the seventh of a scoreless game. The Sea Gulls had the bases loaded with two outs, but a sharp line out off the bat of freshman Harley Hill ended the threat.
CNU's Jessie Atkinson delivered the game-ending hit in the home half of the seventh inning. Ashley Mani opened the frame with a double, one of just four hits allowed in the game by Sea Gull junior pitcher Erika Brittingham, and came home on Atkinson's one-out base hit.
The complete-game effort by Brittingham was her third of the season, and another outstanding performance as she struck out 10 and did not walk a batter.
Hill was one of four Sea Gulls to earn a base hit in the game, led by sophomore Lindsay McCabe who went 2-for-3.
After falling behind 1-0 in the first inning of the second game, the Sea Gulls scored single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings to pull ahead 3-2. A sacrifice fly off the bat of sophomore Michelle Gravdahl in the third scored senior Kristin Lord. Sophomore Sarah Alpaugh's solo home run in the fourth tied the game at two and Lord scored the go-ahead run on Hill's single in the fifth.
The lead only lasted until the bottom half of the inning when the Captains (4-2) would tie the game on a bases-loaded walk. Christopher Newport looked to end the game in the seventh, but Brittingham, who worked 3 1/3 innings in relief of senior Kelly Leary, worked out of a bases-loaded jam with no outs on a strikeout, a groundout and a line out to end the threat.
In the eighth, the Captains got the winning run on third with no outs and were able to end the game on a sacrifice fly.
The Sea Gulls will be back in action this weekend as they travel to Virginia Beach, Va., for the Virginia Wesleyan College Beach Blast on Friday and Saturday.
