March 11, 2005

DeLAND, Fla. - The Virginia Tech softball team picked up a pair of wins on the first day of the Stetson Tournament, downing Michigan State, 2-1 in nine innings, before dispatching of Stetson, 7-4, in the second game of the day.

The first game of the day saw a scoreless game go into extra innings before Michigan State drew first blood in the top of the seventh with an RBI single. With a runner - Crystal Beach - starting the inning on second base, Theresa Walsh lined a single back up the middle to tie the game up. Tech could get no more, sending the game to the ninth inning.

The Spartans failed to score, leaving the door open for the Hokies. Kathleen Jones started the inning on second and moved to third on Alisia Narodowski's sacrifice bunt. After MSU intentionally walked both Sarah Prosise and Caroline Stolle, freshman Kelsey Hoffman lifted a fly ball to right field, scoring Jones on the sacrifice fly and giving Tech the win.

Katie Maynard (W, 9-2) went all 9.0 innings, allowing six hits and one unearned run while walking three and striking out seven.

At the plate, Kelly Brown picked up two hits to lead the way. Caitlin Murphy, Hoffman and Walsh had the other three hits.

In the second game, Tech took a quick lead in the first inning when Brown led off the game with a single and moved around to third. Narodowski popped up the ball in foul territory to first base, but no one covered home and Brown slid in under the tag for a rare sacrifice fly to first base.

Tech got three more runs in the second, capped by Brown's two-RBI double to the left. In the third, Narodowski scored on Hoffman's single up the middle.

Stetson made it a game in the third, scoring three runs to make it 5-3. That's the way it stayed until the seventh, when the Hokies scored two insurance runs. Prosise scored on Hoffman's single and Stolle scored on Allyson Campbell's single to right.

At the plate, Tech pounded out 15 hits, led by Brown's career-high tying four. For the game, she had four hits (six on the day), two RBI, two runs scored and two stolen bases. Murphy, Prosise, Stolle and Hoffman each had two hits while Megan Evans, Narodowski and Campbell each had one hit.

Karie Morrison (W, 4-1) went the distance, allowing four earned runs on eight hits while walking two and striking out six.

With the wins, the Hokies are now 22-4, 2-0 at this weekend's tournament. Michigan State and Bethune-Cookman each went 1-1 on the day while the Hatters went 0-2. Tech is back in action Saturday, taking on BCC at 12:30 p.m., before a rematch with Stetson at 5:30 p.m.