Tuesday, March 10 2005

#3 SAINTS DEFEAT #6 LADY EAGLES 6-0 IN FIRST ROUND ON NAIA REGION XIII SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT

Orange Beach, Ala. - The #2 seed University of Mobile (44-8) made easy work of their first opponent in the NAIA Region XIII softball tournament defeating North Georgia College & State University 10-2 Monday afternoon in a mercy-ruled five inning contest at the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Orange Beach, Alabama.

The Rams jumped on the scoreboard quickly in the bottom of the first inning after Sylvia Bedgood led off the game with a single to right field and Evelyne Pare reached on an error by North Georgia (41-14).

Later in the inning with two outs and runners on first and third base, UM clean-up hitter Mayret Perez singled deep in the hole between shortstop and third base and beat the throw to first scoring Bedgood with the first run of the game.

Winter Guthrie plated two more runs in the bottom of the second inning when she blasted her second home run of the year.  After Karine Gagne had reached on another fielding error by North Georgia, Guthrie hit a two-run homer over the right centerfield fence extending Mobile's lead to 3-0.  With two outs and nobody on, Bedgood kept the inning alive by dropping down a bunt and beating the throw to first base.  After stealing second, Bedgood advanced to third on Pare's infield single.  Angelica Yrigoyen then singled to shortstop scoring Bedgood and Perez's second consecutive RBI single made the score 5-0.

The Rams added insurances runs in the fourth inning when Bedgood scored her third run of the game on Yrigoyen's RBI sacrifice fly.  Later with two runners on, Meredith Tanner doubled to the left centerfield gap, scoring Pare on the play and moving Perez to third base.  A poor throw to the plate got away from the North Georgia catcher scoring Perez on the play and giving Mobile an 8-0 lead.  Finally, Christie Jackson singled back up the middle scoring Tanner and giving Mobile a 9-0 lead.

North Georgia answered back with two runs in the top of the fifth inning to stay alive but Bedgood (2-for-2, 2 base on balls) scored her fourth run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning on a Yrigoyen RBI single ending the game on the eight-run mercy rule.

Linden Jones (16-3), who was named the NAIA National Pitcher of the Week last week, picked up her 16th win of the season.  Maintaining a miniscule 0.93 ERA for the year, Jones scattered four base hits and allowed just one earned run, while striking out 10 batters.

Mobile will meet up with today's other second round winner, no. 1-ranked Thomas University tomorrow, Tuesday, May 10 at 11 a.m.  The winner of tomorrow morning's contest will automatically move into tomorrow evening's championship round.

Box Score