Mount Olive splits double-header

By MOC Sports Information
Published in Sports on March 22, 2007 2:45 PM

• Print
• Email

PEMBROKE -- Tiffanie Pittman's two-run single highlighted a four-run fifth inning and put Mount Olive ahead to stay as the Trojans defeated UNC Pembroke 5-3 in game one of a non-conference softball doubleheader Wednesday.

In the nightcap, Jenny Jackson and Bailey Harrell both homered to help the Trojans build an early five-run lead, but UNC Pembroke rallied for an 8-6 victory and a doubleheader split.

With 20 games left in the regular season, Mount Olive has already matched its win total of the entire 2006 season.

Mount Olive (26-9) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second as Jackson drew a leadoff walk, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored on Jamie Pruitt's single through the right side.

UNC Pembroke (15-23) used two Trojan errors to score three unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth. Katie Linkous broke a 1-1 tie with a two-run single.

Courtney Wallace led off the top of the fifth with a single and eventually scored on a throwing error to cut the lead to 3-2. Kat Cahoon and Erin Wilson scored on Pittman's single through the right side to put the Trojans back on top 4-3. A walk and a ground out put runners on second and third, and Pittman scored an insurance run when Harrell reached on an error.

Trojan starter Jackson (8-3) retired 10 of the last 11 batters she faced, recording two of her five strikeouts in the seventh inning for the complete game victory. Jackson walked one and finished with a five-hitter. All of the runs scored by both teams were unearned.

After UNC Pembroke took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of game two, Jackson led off the top of the second with her team-leading seventh home run of the season. After Pittman drove in a run with a two-out bases-loaded walk -- the fourth walk of the inning -- Wilson hit an opposite-field double down the left field line to drive in two more runs and give the Trojans a 4-1 lead.

Harrell hit her third home run of the season -- all in her last eight games -- with one out in the third and Pruitt followed with a single. After advancing to second on a ground out, Pruitt scored on Cahoon's single to right to extend the Trojans' lead to 6-1.

UNC Pembroke in the bottom of the third as the first three batters singled and Wendi Cochran cleared the bases with a double to cut the Trojans' lead to 6-4. Shauna Cowdrey (8-4) took over on the mound for Krystal Bourne, who entered the game with a 6-0 record on the season. After a sacrifice moved Cochran to third, Cowdrey retired the next two batters on a ground out and a fly out.

Mount Olive had runners on first and third with nobody out in the fourth and runners on first and second with two outs in the fifth, but was unable to push a run across the plate.

Cowdrey preserved the Trojans' two-run lead until the bottom of the fifth when Cochran doubled in a run and scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly. After UNCP drew a pair of walks to open the bottom of the sixth, Christine Ermer replaced Cowdrey, but the Braves scored the go-ahead on a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly. Cochran singled home an insurance run for her fifth RBI of the game.

Cahoon, Harrell, Pruitt and Wilson paced the Trojans' 10-hit attack with two hits apiece in the nightcap.

After six straight non-conference games, Mount Olive resumes conference play Saturday as the Trojans play host to Coker in a Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference doubleheader. Mount Olive (6-0) is the lone remaining unbeaten team in conference play. Game time is 2 p.m. at Nancy Chapman Cassell Field.