Bats come alive in sweep over Warriors
The Bellevue University softball team pounded out 29 hits on the day while using the solid pitching efforts of Katie Cunningham, Cory Carrillo, and Emily Rochford, en route to a North Star Athletic Association doubleheader sweep over Waldorf University Friday afternoon at Roy Smith Field.
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
OMAHA, Neb. -- The Bellevue University softball team pounded out 29 hits on the day while using the solid pitching efforts of Katie Cunningham, Cory Carrillo, and Emily Rochford, en route to a North Star Athletic Association doubleheader sweep over Waldorf University Friday afternoon at Roy Smith Field. BU won by scores of 9-0 and 8-2.
With the two wins, the Bruins improved to 26-11 on the season and 12-2 in the NSAA. Waldorf fell to 5-19 overall and 5-7 in league play.
The two teams will complete the four-game series with a noon doubleheader on Saturday at Roy Smith Field.
Game 1: Bellevue 9, Waldorf 0
Katie Cunningham threw a complete-game two-hit shutout and the Bruins pounded out 17 hits, including 10 doubles, en route to the 9-0 victory in the opener.
The 10 doubles set a team single-game school record. The previous record was set during the 2013 season against Concordia (Neb.) and again in the 2017 campaign versus Friends.
Ashley Young's RBI double to right field gave the Bruins an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
The Bruins added a second run in the top of the second frame on Cunningham's run-scoring single to left field that score Maricela Egan.
Bellevue made it 3-0 in the top of the third on a sacrifice fly to right field by Lauren Jurek.
BU plated three runs in the top of the fourth on Egan's RBI single to left field, Emily Rochford's RBI double to left field, and Reese Floro's RBI single to center field, making the score 6-0.
Young's two-run blast over the left-field fence increased the margin to 8-0 in the top of the seventh inning.
Rochford's RBI double to left field scored Cunningham, making the final, 9-0.
Six Bruins recorded multiple hits in the victory. Young finished 2-for-4 with a double, a home run, and three RBIs. Cunningham went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI.
Rochford went 3-for-4 with three doubles and a pair of RBIs.
Cunningham improved to 9-6 on the season, allowing just two hits with no walks and eight strikeouts in seven innings of work.
Alex Mathers (1-6) took the loss, giving up 15 hits and seven runs with no walks and no strikeouts in six innings.
Game 2: Bellevue 8, Waldorf 2
Four Bruins produced multiple hits including a 3-for-3 effort from Floro as BU cruised to the 8-2 victory in the nightcap.
Liana McMurtry, Jurek, Allison O'Driscoll, and Egan all drove in two runs in the victory.
An RBI single to right field by McMurtry and a two-run homer to center field by Jurek gave the Bruins a 3-0 advantage in the top of the first inning.
The Warriors responded in the bottom of the first inning with a two-run single to left field by Brooke Hickey to slice the lead to 3-2.
An RBI double to left field by Egan pushed the margin to 4-2 in the top of the fifth stanza.
The Bruins expanded the margin to 5-2 in the top of the sixth on McMurtry's RBI double to right field that plated Floro.
O'Driscoll's two-run homer to center field and Egan's solo homer to left field pushed the advantage to 8-2 in the top of the seventh frame.
Cory Carrillo earned the win, improving to 6-2 on the season, allowing two runs on five hits with one walk and seven strikeouts in four innings of work.
Rochford, who entered the circle in the bottom of the fifth inning, picked up her second save of the season, after not allowing a hit in the final three innings of the contest.