Eagles' Beckert shuts out Rebels

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on May 5, 2010 1:47 PM

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Amanda Beckert bore down at the right time.

The Rosewood hurler worked out of trouble in the sixth and seventh innings, and the Eagles defeated Carolina 1-A Conference softball foe North Duplin 4-0 on Tuesday night.

After giving up a two-out single in the top of the first inning, Beckert retired 14 Rebels in a row before surrendering back-to-back one-out singles in the top of the sixth inning. Beckert struck out Casey Thornton and got Skylar McCarty to pop out to end the threat.

Alonna Pate delivered a one-out single in the top of the seventh and Rachel Barwick reached on an error. Beckert struck out Angelica Favela and Caitlin Davis to end the ballgame.

A right-hander, Beckert allowed four hits and struck out four with no walks in a complete-game effort.

"Amanda did a really good job of moving the ball around," said Eagles' head coach Tracie Meadows. "We kept them off-balance so that was really good. She made them hit the ball and put it in play so our defense could work behind her."

Four of the five base runners North Duplin stranded were left on in the final two innings. The Rebels reached base just five times.

"We had some chances to score," said North Duplin head coach Heather Best. "We hit the ball OK tonight. Unfortunately, we hit it to people. Rosewood's got a good solid defense and they ate up everything we hit to them."

Kelsey Kornegay and Laura Vinson provided consecutive RBI singles in the home half of the first to give Rosewood a 2-0 lead. Megan Tyndall's RBI triple in the bottom of the third inning extended the lead to 3-0.

Beckert added an RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning. Beckert, Vinson and Tyndall each finished with two hits and an RBI.

"We started off putting some pressure on their defense and making their pitchers work," said Meadows. "We put that pressure on them and we're working on motivating our kids. We've got a very young team so they're learning a lot about putting pressure on people."

Tearra Ammons, McCarty, Pate and Ashley Froehlich each had a hit for the Rebels.

The Eagles (6-8 overall, 6-2 CC) visit archrival Princeton on Friday, while North Duplin (5-9, 4-4) plays host to Spring Creek.