May 7, 2008

Box Score

Mt. Pleasant, S.C. - Kristie Shifflett led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a walk-off home run to lift the College of Charleston over Furman 6-5 in the opening round of the Southern Conference Softball Championship Wednesday evening at Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.

The loss dropped Furman, 21-32 , into the loser's bracket where the Paladins will face Appalachian State in an elimination game at noon on Thursday. Third-seed Charleston (32-31) advances to face second-seeded Georgia Southern, 4-2 winners versus Appalachian State, in a winner's bracket game at 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Shifflett, held hitless in her first three at-bats hammered a Lana Mackey pitch over the left field wall to end the Cougars two-game losing streak to Furman in SoCon Tournament openers.

Furman had rallied twice to force the game to the bottom of the seventh erasing a 4-2 deficit in the top of the fifth and a 5-4 deficit in the sixth inning. Meredith Mielke drew a two-out walk to start the fifth inning rally and scored on an error following singles from Stephanie Cushing and Brythe Blankenship. After Mackey drew a base on balls, Morgan Hughey delivered a two-out single to score Cushing and knot the game at 4-4.

Katie Nutaitis put the Cougars back in front with a homer in the bottom of the frame before Furman provided an answer again. Bethany Ullrich singled and moved to third on Mielke's two-out single. Cushing followed with a base-hit to tie the game at 5-5.

Furman jumped on the board first with an unearned run in the second inning. The Cougars rallied with a three-run third inning highlighted by RBI doubles from Kristi Woodall and Nutaitis. The teams traded runs in the fourth with Hughey and Woodall lacing RBI singles.

Shannon Howard (18-11) earned the win allowing three runs, just one earned, on seven hits in three innings of work in relief of starter Terri Mesko. Woodall, Nutaitis and Christal Kotchman each collected two hits for the Cougars.

Lana Mackey suffered the loss for Furman to slip to 16-25 in the circle. The sophomore allowed four runs on eight hits in six innings while walking four and fanning five batters. Hughey went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI for Furman. Blankenship delivered a double and two RBI while Cushing also added two hits in the loss.

Fans can follow all the tournament action at www.soconsports.com or by clicking on the "livestats" link on the Furman softball schedule page.