NOTRE DAME, Ind. (May 13, 2006) ? After waiting to play its first game of the BIG EAST Softball Championship for two days due to weather conditions, the No. 2 seeded University of South Florida softball team lost to No. 7 seed Pittsburgh, 2-1, on Saturday afternoon at Ivy Field in Notre Dame, Ind.
With the loss, the Bulls' tournament chances came to an end in the single-elimination format.
USF pitcher Bree Spence started the game pitching three scoreless inning without giving up a hit. In the fourth inning, Spence hit batter Morgan Howard, putting a runner at first base for Pittsburgh's Sheena Hellon, who came up to bat and hit a two-run home run to give Pitt the 2-0 lead.
With the Bulls trailing going into the bottom of the fourth inning, Christie Chapman cut the Panthers' lead down to one run thanks to a solo shot over the right field fence, 2-1. With two outs on the board, Ashley Bullion and Danielle Urbanik singled up the middle and a wild pitch put runners at second and third. Pittsburgh pitcher Christa Hunter ended the Bulls' scoring chance as she got Laura Wolf to groundout to end the inning.
In the fifth inning, USF (47-23) had runners at the corners with one out on the board, but could not bring anyone home as Hunter got the final batters to strikeout and groundout to end the inning.
With their only chance left to tie the game or take the lead, the Bulls could not get anything going against Pittsburgh and went down one-two-three to end the game with the 2-1 loss.
USF out-hit the Panthers (32-26) six to five but could not get its bats going when it mattered most and stranded six runners on base.
Hunter (6-2) got the win coming into the game in the fourth inning and closing out the game giving up two runs in three and one-third innings of work. Hunter relieved Meghan Bostic, who got the start and gave up the Chapman homer.
Spence (21-9) picked up the loss, giving up two runs on two hits in three and one-third innings of work. Freshman Cristi Ecks came in to the game in the fourth inning to relieve Spence and didn't allowing any runs on three hits while posting two strikeouts.
The No. 25 ranked Bulls will now have to wait and see if they receive an at-large bid to make it to the NCAA Regional for the fourth-straight year.
