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Box Score 2
by Benny Benton
WILSON, N.C.-The Barton College softball team claimed perhaps its biggest win of the year on Tuesday, edging North Greenville University, 4-3, in the first game of a Conference Carolinas doubleheader at Gillette Park.
The victory over the team with the best record in the league kept alive the Lady Bulldogs' faint hopes of earning a spot in the Conference Carolinas Tournament. Barton moved to within two games (three in the win column) of the eighth-place team in the league, Pfeiffer, with six conference games to go.
Barton was unable to complete the doubleheader sweep of the Crusaders (21-9, 16-4), however, falling 10-0 in the nightcap. The split left the Lady Bulldogs with a record of 14-21 overall and 4-11 in league play.
The Lady Bulldogs earned their victory in game one by defeating one of the leading pitchers in the conference. Rachel Glazebrook brought 11 wins and a scant 1.54 ERA into the contest, but Barton collected seven hits and four runs off the North Greenville ace.
Sophomore Autumn Pittman had a pair of hits, and junior Amber Weaver drove in two of Barton's four runs.
Meanwhile, Barton senior starter Kendall Street (4-4) limited the Crusaders to just six hits, striking out three and walking three. She did not give up an earned run, as all three of North Greenville's runs came on Barton miscues. The Lady Bulldogs had five errors in the contest.
The Crusaders got on the board in the top of the first. Sarah Armstrong led off the game with a single, moved to third on a throwing error, and scored on Amy Nagel's bunt. North Greenville had an opportunity for a much bigger inning, but Street got consecutive outs to strand a pair of runners in scoring position.
Barton struck back with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Junior Elizabeth Webb led off the frame with a triple into the right field corner, and senior Stacy Wade followed with a walk. Two batters later, junior Becka Morgan reached first and plated Webb on a fielder's choice. Weaver then doubled to right center, scoring both Wade and Morgan to give the Lady Bulldogs a 3-1 advantage.
The Lady Bulldogs added what turned out to be an important insurance run in the fourth. Street led off the inning with a single to left, and was replaced on the bath path by freshman pinch-runner Alyssa Spell. Sophomore Alex Baylis and senior Autumn Herrin executed consecutive sacrifice bunts to move Spell to third, and she scored easily when senior Casey Strickland doubled to right center.
North Greenville pulled to within a run in the top of the sixth, scoring twice on two Barton errors and an RBI single by Armstrong, who had three of her team's six hits. The Crusaders threatened to tie the game in the seventh after Glazebrook reached on a leadoff single, but Wade and Herrin made two outstanding defensive plays in a row to force out runners. Street walked a batter to force a runner into scoring position, but retired Kimberly Robertson on a one-hopper back to the mound to end the game.
In game two, North Greenville pounded out 13 hits and took advantage of five more Barton errors to take the easy win. Two errors and a two-out RBI single by Kendra Epting gave the Crusaders a 2-0 lead in the first. It added a single run in the fourth on a two-out RBI double by Glazebrook, and chased Barton starter Pittman (4-8) with a four-run fifth inning, highlighted by a two-run single from Hillary Key. Glazebrook, Key and Kansas Wofford each had two hits in the game.
North Greenville starter Cassi Carpenter (4-2), meanwhile, took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, when Alex Baylis broke it up with an infield single to third. Webb singled to left in the sixth inning, the only other hit in the game off of Carpenter, who struck out two and did not walk a batter.
Barton will host St. Andrews in a 1:30 p.m. doubleheader Friday at Jefferies Field.
