Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Canisius
Marshall Blasts Past Canisius, 10-1
3/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 6, 2009
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - After nearly two weeks off, the Marshall University softball team bats came out hot as three different players homered giving them a 10-1 victory over Canisius in five innings Friday at Dot Hicks Field.
"Once again we came out swinging early," head coach Shonda Stanton said. "There were some innings there that I thought we didn't execute offensively but we made the adjustments and came back finishing strong."
The Thundering Herd (8-6), who has had no problem producing early runs, lit up the scoreboard first in the bottom of the first with a three run inning. The inning began with freshman Alianna Telles (Sylmar, Calif.) doubled to the outfield.
Senior Joscelyn Bitner (Virginia Beach, Va.) singled which scored Telles. After two outs, freshman Rebecca Gamby (Mount Victory, Ohio) homered in her first home at-bat with a shot to right putting the game at 3-0.
The Griffins (3-3) derailed the shut out in the third when Katie Lancellotti was hit by a pitch and would move to third after two sacrifice bunts. Lancellotti scored when Lauren Hope doubled to right center cutting the lead to two.
The rally ended there as junior Katie Murphree (Tallahassee, Fla.) finished up the game only allowing one other hit. Murphree finished the game going five innings with six strikeouts and is now 4-2 on the year.
In the fourth and fifth innings, Marshall plated seven more runs to end the game after just five inning of play. During the fourth, Gamby started off with a walk, giving freshman Melissa Loesing (Grapevine, Texas) a chance to pitch run.
Senior Rachael Sofie (Everett, Wash.) stepped up and ripped a shot to left center scoring Loesing. Senior Kelly Nielson (Tucson, Ariz.) and pinch hitter senior Rachel Schmidt (Alliance, Ohio) both walked loading the bases.
Telles, who already doubled earlier in the contest, drilled a high pitch over the wall giving her the second home run of her career and her first grand slam. Canisius pulled pitcher Juliette Bowers who was credited the loss with 3.1 innings pitched and right earned runs.
The game ended in the bottom half of the fifth as Gamby singled and Sofie hit a home run to left ending the game at 10-1. Gamby, Sofie and Telles, who all hit home runs, each finished with two hits a piece.
Marshall will now face Buffalo in the third game of the Marshall Softball Tournament today set for a 3 p.m. EST start time. For this weekend's tournament, there will be live gametracker for all of the game along with radio broadcast from WMUL 88.1 FM. Their broadcast can also be heard online at http://www.marshall.edu/wmul.
All of the Herd's contests will be available via video streaming for members of Herd All-Access. Along with the live video there will be audio from WMUL's broadcast. For more information please visit our tournament page, http://herdzone.cstv.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/softball-tournament-09.html.
