WILMINGTON, N.C. – The Saint Francis softball team dropped a 6-4 decision on Sunday against Eastern Kentucky at the Seahawk Softball Bash, hosted by UNC Wilmington. The Red Flash tallied four hits, but committed five errors. The Red Flash ended the weekend with a 3-2 record.
Junior
Ethel Santai (Pine Grove, Pa./Pine Grove Area) suffered her first loss of the season and is now 2-1. Santai pitched the first four innings of the game, allowing eight hits, five runs, including two earned runs, and two walks.
Fellow junior
Blaire Lauthers (Doylesburg, Pa./Fannett-Metal) pitched the final three innings, giving up a run on three hits, striking out one and walking one.
Haley Flynn improved to 3-1 for Eastern Kentucky, pitching four innings, while allowing one run on four innings and striking out four.
Sophomore
Jordan Seneca (Plum, Pa./Plum) collected two hits and drove in a pair of runs. Freshmen
Sierra McKee (DuBois, Pa./DuBois) and
Mikayla Bower (Williamsport, Pa./Williamsport) each got a hit and scored a run, while McKee also drove in a run.
The Red Flash tallied the first run of the day. After drawing three previous walks in the inning, sophomore
Madison Cabell (Ivor, Va./Southampton) worked a five-pitch walk, which allowed McKee to score.
Eastern Kentucky tied the game in the top of the second. Krislyn Campos singled to right to drive in Paige Murphy.
Saint Francis answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second. Seneca lined a single to center to plate senior
Kate Blattenberger (Martinsburg, Pa./Central) and junior
Kindra Witthus (Hudson, Wis./Hudson) and take a 3-1 lead.
The Colonials added a run in the top of the third. A misplayed groundball on the infield allowed the runner to score from second to cut the Red Flash lead to 3-2.
Eastern Kentucky then took the lead in the top of the fourth. The first run of the inning scored on a groundball through the left side. Another run scored on a single to left center by Kayla Joyce to make it 4-3 EKU.
The Red Flash tied the game at 4-all with a run in the bottom of the fourth. Bower led off with a single to center. After a sacrifice bunt by Blattenberger to move Bower to second, Witthus drew a walk. On the last pitch of the at-bat, a passed ball allowed Bower to advance to third. A single by the middle by McKee drove in Bower to tie the score.
The Colonials re-took the lead with a run in the top of the fifth. After two singles and a double steal to lead off the inning, EKU beat the throw to home on a fielder's choice to go up 5-4.
Eastern Kentucky added to its lead with a run in the top of the sixth. With the bases loaded and one out, a groundball was hit to second base, but the only play available was throwing to first. However, the EKU run scored to extend the lead to 6-4.
The Red Flash returns to North Carolina next weekend for the East Carolina Pirate Clash in Greenville. SFU plays UMass at 10 a.m. and Bucknell at 12:30 p.m. on Friday to start the tournament.
