April 20, 2008
TAMPA, Fla. – The University of Notre Dame softball team fell twice to South Florida at USF Softball Field on Sunday by counts of 5-2 and 8-4. The pair of losses dropped Notre Dame to 29-15 overall and 9-5 in BIG EAST Conference play, while USF improved to 39-14 overall and 14-2 against league opponents.
South Florida’s Kit Dunbar singled home Kelly McCarver in the third with an infield hit for an unearned run in game one. McCarver reached base earlier on a throwing error by Linda Kohan that pulled Christine Lux off of first base.
Lux kept her feet steady and launched what began as a routine fly ball into a two-run homer after the rock caught the wind and sailed over the leftfield fence in the fifth.
The Bulls posted four runs on one hit and one error to take a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth. USF put down a pair of squeeze bunts to help cross two of those runs to keep the margin of victory in its favor.
Brittney Bargar (22-9) gave up six hits to the home team and struck out three with one walk. USF starter Courtney Mosch gave up five hits in 5.0 innings and was relieved by Kristen Gordon (3-5) who tossed a scoreless sixth to take the win. Capri Catalano earned the save by keeping the Irish without a run on one hit in the seventh.
Sarah Smith had two hits for Notre Dame and McCarver had two runs for the Bulls.
The Irish answered USF’s one run in the first inning of game two with a score of their own in the second. Lux was hit by a pitch and later scored when Erin Marrone singled to left.
The Bulls added two more in the third and four runs in the fourth on Cat Olnick’s grand slam to left.
Cutting the lead to 7-4 in the sixth, Notre Dame scratched out two runs on three hits with singles by Lux, Northway and Marrone but left three runners on base when the third out was made. USF tacked on one more score in the bottom of the sixth.
Both teams had 10 hits and left nine runners on base. Notre Dame had three errors while USF was flawless in the field.
Jody Valdivia (7-6) gave up two earned runs in 4.2 innings while taking the loss, and Courtney Mosch (17-6) got the win by logging the final 1.2 frames without giving up one hit.
Olnick totaled five RBI and three hits in the game with Savarese adding on two hits and three RBI. Smith was good for three hits and two RBI for Notre Dame.
–ND–