Liberty Box

Georgetown Box

Lynchburg, Va. – Hampton split a pair of games during day one of the Blue Ridge Thunder Softball Tournament hosted by Liberty University. The Lady Pirates (17-5) had their 11-game winning streak snapped with a 4-3 loss to host Liberty, before bouncing back to shutout Georgetown 2-0.

In the opener Liberty scored all four of its runs in the second inning before holding off a Hampton rally late in the game.

Claire Fridey led off the second with a solo home run off of Hampton starter Amanda Black (8-2) to get things started for the Flames. Black responded with back-to-back strikeouts, but Liberty mounted a two-out rally and sent three more runs across the plate. Dawn Jeffs hit another solo shot to left field and three consecutive doubles by Shannon McKain, Jessica Moore and Ashley Williams increased the Liberty lead to 4-0.

Black and Liberty hurler Sarah Ellis held both teams scoreless for the next four innings before the Lady Pirates broke through in the top of the sixth with a two-out rally of their own. Following a walk to Maggie Wolfe and a single by Evelyn Garcia, Angela Balser took the first pitch she saw from Ellis and sent it sailing over the center field wall to bring Hampton to within one. However, the Lady Pirates next four batters were retired in order, including a 1-2-3 seventh inning as the Flames (19-14) held on for the win.

The second game of the day turned out to be a pitchers’ dual between Black and Georgetown’s Jennifer Connell as they combined to allow just three hits. Unfortunately for Connell, both of the hits she allowed were home runs, leading to Hampton’s 2-0 victory.

With the game scoreless after three, Brittany Davis and Maggie Wolfe hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the fourth to give Black all of the run support she would need. Black registered her third complete game shutout of the season, surrendering just one hit to improve to 9-2 on the year.