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TAMPA, APRIL 27, 2014 – Seven seniors were recognized before the game for Senior Day and they finished with a bang, cruising to a 10-0 win over Memphis to complete the series sweep on Sunday afternoon in front of 797 fans at the USF Softball Stadium.
“That was the culmination of a great weekend,” head coach Ken Eriksen said. “Everybody contributed tremendously and it ended on a great note.”
Ashli Goff, Courtney Goff, Stephanie Medina, Sara Nevins, Kourtney Salvarola, Kaitlyn Santo and Dani Wayt all saw action in possibly their final game in front of the home fans in Tampa.
“It's a great story of what that senior class has done, so you can get a little emotional, but you've got to get right back into the focus. I think the players did a better job of getting back into the focus than the coaches did, so that's a credit to them and how mentally tough they are, but I just can't be any more excited about having spent a long time with a bunch of great people,” Eriksen said.
Nevins (Pinellas Park, Fla.) led USF (36-14, 10-5) in the circle with her second straight one-hitter and registered her conference-leading 23rd win this season. It was the third consecutive game that a Bulls' pitcher threw a one-hitter after Nevins threw one in game 1 of the series and Erica Nunn threw one in game 2.
The Bulls jumped out to an early lead for second day in a row as they posted three hits and were aided by three Memphis errors to take a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Lee Ann Spivey (Palm Coast, Fla.) started the inning off with a single up the middle and advanced to second on the play on an error. Spivey came around to score the game's first run one batter later after another Tigers' error by second baseman Kelly Braman.
Kristen Wyckoff and Juli Weber followed that with back-to-back RBI singles to give Nevins and the Bulls a three-run cushion heading to the third inning.
After neither team was able to post any runs in the third, the Bulls put the game out of reach with their second consecutive seven-run fourth inning.
Courtney Goff (Tampa) led off with a single to left field and Wyckoff (Plant City, Fla.) followed that with her second hit of the game. With runners on first and second with no outs, Weber roped a ball into left center for a two-run double to put the Bulls up 5-0. The freshman from Hegins, Pa., went 3-for-3 on the day with a run and matched her career-high with three runs batted in.
USF didn't stop there as Ashli Goff kept the inning going by legging out an infield single to put runners on the corners for Salvarola, who quickly made it 8-0 with a three-run blast off the batting cages in left center. It was the 13th home run of the year for the Arnold, Md., native, tying her career-best from last season.
The Tigers' (22-29, 4-13) fourth error of the game allowed Medina (Tampa) to score from third while Wyckoff capped of the scoring with her second RBI single of the game to score Santo (Palm Harbor, Fla.) and make it 10-0 heading into the fifth. Wyckoff joined Weber as the second Bull to go 3-for-3 on the day while scoring twice and tying a career-high with two RBI.
All six seniors that batted scored at least one run and four of the six recorded a hit while Nevins registered her 26th career shutout and moved into third on USF's all-time list with her 102nd career start.
The team improved to 25-0 this season when scoring five or more runs and recorded its 11th run-rule victory this season.
“If we continue to focus on what we did today, and that's move the ball on the ground, then we have a great chance to go a long way throughout the rest of this year and then hopefully into the postseason.”
The Bulls wrap up regular-season play this weekend when they travel to Philadelphia to take on Temple. First pitch for game 1 is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Temple Softball Stadium.
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