CU Softball Drops Two at UNCP Invitational - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

The Concord University softball team dropped a pair of games on day one of the UNCP Invitational Friday. Concord's comeback bid fell just short to begin the day in a 9-7 loss against California (Pa.) before losing to Kutztown, the third ranked team in the country in the first NFCA preseason poll, 9-1.

Game 1 Concord 7 - California University (Pa.) 9

Freshman Alyssa Morris continued her sensational start to her Concord career by going 2-for-4 with four RBI. Morris now has nine RBI in six games for Concord and is batting .412 this season.

Sophomore Lacey McDougall posted her fourth multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-4. Senior Becca Gleason also had a two-hit game in addition to one RBI. Senior Stephanie Harper scored two runs and recorded one RBI from the leadoff slot. Sophomore Karsyn Boothe scored two runs.

McDougall fell to 1-2 on the season in the circle after allowing all nine runs, although only seven were earned, and striking out one batter in the complete-game loss.

The Vulcans jumped out to seemingly untouchable 6-0 lead with back-to-back three-run innings in the second and third.

Concord's bats came alive in the bottom of the third with a feverous two-out rally. Boothe avoided the three-up, three-down inning with a two-out walk and was quickly brought home for Concord's first run of the game when Harper drove a double to left field.

Junior Rachael Mack kept the inning alive with a single that was followed by the two-run base hit of the day from Morris.After a single from McDougall, Gleason shot a ball up the middle to plate Morris and cut the Vulcans' lead to just 6-4.

California added an unearned run in the fourth, but another multi-run Mountain Lion inning lied ahead.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth, Vulcan pitcher Alex Sagl threw a wild pitch that prolonged the inning and allowed sophomore short stop Haley Wade to score, cutting CU's deficit back to two runs (7-5). With the count 2-2, Morris proceeded to hit another two-run hit to tie the game at 7-7 heading to the fifth inning.

However, Concord's comeback attempt was halted when Sagl made up for her previous wild pitch with a home run to center field that put the Vulcans back on top 8-7 after five innings. California added an insurance run in the sixth to take a 9-7 lead into the seventh.

CU put runners on first and second with one out in the final frame, but Sagl threw consecutive strike outs to end the game and earn the win for the Vulcans.

Game 2 Concord 1 – No. 3 Kutztown 9

Mack and McDougall garnered Concord's only two hits in its loss against Kutztown. The two players are tied for the longest active hitting streak by a Concord player at three games.

CU struck first against the Golden Bears when Mack, who reached base via a walk earlier in the inning, crossed home plate when a Kutztown outfielder misplayed McDougall's single.

However, Kutztown responded by scoring four runs in its half of the first inning before adding an additional five runs in the fourth inning to take a 9-1 lead it never relinquished.

Mack (1-2) was the pitcher of record for Concord after giving up eight runs, only four of which were earned, in 3.1 innings. Boothe came on in relief of Mack and gave up one unearned run to close out the game. Concord's defense had five errors against Kutztown.

Three players had two RBI each for Kutztown.

Concord (2-4) will look to snap its four-game losing streak Saturday with a pair of wins starting with a rematch against California (Pa.) at 2:30 p.m. followed by a showdown with host UNC-Pembroke at 4:30 p.m. on day two of the UNC-Pembroke Invitational.