SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (May 6, 2007) ? The University of South Florida softball team closed out the 2007 regular season extending its win streak to 10-games, defeating Seton Hall, 6-5, 9-1, on Sunday afternoon at Ivy Hill Park.
With the pair of wins and a Louisville loss to St. John's on Sunday, the Bulls (43-21, 15-5 BIG EAST) finished the season in second place in the BIG EAST standings.
Kristen Gordon (15-6) won both games on the day in the circle. In game one, she relieved starter Courtney Mosch in the fifth inning and allowed one run on two hits with four Ks. In game two, Gordon tossed a three-hitter, allowing one run with nine strikeouts in five innings.
Cristi Ecks broke the USF single-season record when she registered her seventh save of the year in game one. Ecks started the seventh inning and retiring the side in order to break the previous mark of six set by Monica Triner in 1997.
Four USF players hit home runs on Sunday and Danielle Urbanik led all players with four RBI.
In game one, the Bulls quickly loaded the bases off of two singles and a walk. With no outs, JoJo Medina drew a walk on four pitches for the RBI. The Bulls had three more outs to work with, but Maura Lund got out of the inning with three-straight fly outs.
Courtney Mosch opened up strong for the Bulls in the circle, holding the Pirates scoreless through three innings. In the fourth Seton Hall got its offense going and sent all nine batters to the plate, scoring four runs.
Over the fifth and sixth inning, the Bulls tied the game, fell behind a run and then regained the lead due to three homers. Cat Olnick tied the game for the Bulls, hitting her first-career home run ? a three run shot ? to tie the game in the top of the fifth. In the bottom part of the inning, Laura Baranek put the Pirates ahead, 5-4, with a lead-off solo home run. Britta Giddens gave USF the lead in the sixth inning with a two-run home run to left field.
After Gordon closed out the sixth inning retiring the side on strikeouts, Ecks closed out the seventh inning 1-2-3.
The first inning of game two mirrored the previous contest except the Bulls capitalized on a bases-loaded situation. Medina walked in her second run of the day and Danielle Urbanik followed with a sacrifice fly. Kit Dunbar scored the final run of the inning when she stole third base and the catcher's throw sailed into left field, allowing Dunbar to touch home.
The Bulls offense continued to surge in the second inning and scored five runs. Laura Wolf led off with a walk and Aya Nakajima singled. Giddens hit a grounder to the second baseman, who made an errant throw which scored Wolf. With runners at second and third, Dunbar drove in Nakajima on her first-career sac fly. After Medina drew a walk to put runners at the corners, Urbanik cleared the bases with a home run.
The home-run hitting continued in the third inning when Alison Savarese hit a solo shot over left field to lead off.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Seton Hall ended the USF shutout thanks to an Amanda Winn leadoff home run, 9-1.
The Bulls will return to action when they travel to South Bend, Ind., to participate in the BIG EAST Championship May 10-13.
