NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (Apr. 27, 2008) – Junior Laura Caldwell (Bellefonte, Pa. / Bellefonte) tied a career high with 11 strikeouts on her way to tossing her first career perfect game in a 3-0 victory at Sacred Heart in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader.
Caldwell, who threw her first career no-hitter on Apr. 14 against Central Connecticut State, retired the side on strikeouts twice on the day and set the single-season school mark with her eighth strikeout in the game, which was also her 400th career strikeout. The new single-season SFU standard is 156 strikeouts with four regular season games remaining.
The Red Flash dropped the nightcap 3-1 to split the doubleheader and move their record to 20-32 overall, and 10-6 in the Northeast Conference. SFU will play host to Pittsburgh at 2 p.m. on Wednesday before entertaining Monmouth in both teams' regular season finales at Noon on Saturday. The teams will be playing for the fourth and final playoff spot in the NEC. The Red Flash need one win in the doubleheader, while the Hawks would need a sweep of Saint Francis to secure a playoff spot.
After Caldwell retired the first nine batters she faced, seven by strikeout, junior Kelly Slingwine (Gibsonia, Pa. / Pine Richland) led off the fourth inning with a double. She scored the game's first run when junior Hilary McNelis (Tyrone, Pa. / Tyrone) reached on an error.
SFU tacked on two more runs in the fifth inning on Slingwine's RBI single. Slingwine stole second, allowing senior Nicole Bender (Patton, Pa. / Cambria Heights) to score from third base to make it 3-0.
Caldwell took her perfect game into the seventh when she got a groundout, foul out and flyout to complete the 21-up, 21-down perfect game. In total, Caldwell recorded 11 outs by strikeout (nine swinging), five by flyout, three by infield popout and two by groundout.
Slingwine and sophomore Janelle McCoy (New Paris, Pa. / Chestnut Ridge) had two hits each in the game.
In Game 2, the Red Flash offense never got going in a 3-1 loss. Bender gave the team its only lead of the game with her eighth home run of the season in the top of the third inning. However, the Pioneers finally got to Caldwell for three runs in the bottom half of the inning for all of the game's scoring.
Bender was 3-for-3 in the game, collecting half of SFU's hits. The senior centerfielder reached several milestones on the day. Her second hit of the day moved her into first place on Saint Francis' all-time hits list, while her fourth hit of the twinbill tied her for the school's single season record (57). She now has a school record 178 career hits. She also scored two runs on the day to move into sole possession of second place on SFU's single-season list (39), within one of tying the record. She already sits atop the school's all-time runs scored list with 111.
