TAMPA, Fla. (March 17, 2007) ? The University of South Florida softball team earned consecutive victories against Wisconsin, 4-2, and Ball State, 4-1, on Saturday afternoon to win Pool A and advance to the championship bracket of the Speedline Tournament.
With the win, the Bulls (24-13) will take on Boston University at 11 a.m. on Sunday at the USF Softball Field. The victor of the USF-BU game will play the winner of the 9 a.m. UNLV-Bowling Green matchup at USF.
Cristi Ecks (8-4) won game one, giving up two runs ? only one was earned ? on three hits with 12 strikeouts in six innings. Courtney Mosch got her first save of the season pitching a scoreless seventh. In game two, Kristen Gordon (7-2) pitched a two-hitter with a career best 11 Ks in seven innings.
In game one, JoJo Medina opened up the scoring for the Bulls in the top of the second inning with her first home run of the season. With the bases loaded, USF took a three-run lead thanks to an RBI single by Aya Nakajima and a bases-loaded walk by Britta Giddens.
After Wisconsin cut USF's lead down to 3-1, Nakajima homered for the second time of her career to put the Bulls ahead by three in the fourth inning.
The Badgers managed to score another run in the fourth, but pitching combination of Ecks and Mosch ended any Wisconsin comeback for the remainder of the game.
In game two, Ball State held a 1-0 lead until the Bulls knotted the score in the third inning off a RBI double by Kit Dunbar.
USF scored three total runs in the fourth and fifth inning to take a 4-1 lead. With the bases loaded, Giddens drove in the go-ahead run with a bunt single and Tara Toscano was hit by a pitch for an RBI. Danielle Urbanik led off the fourth inning with a solo home run to cap the scoring.
