JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – The ULM softball team (13-5) continues to work on its consistency in Warhawk head coach
Molly Fichtner's three keys to success, but could not get its bats going in a 7-0 loss to Jacksonville State (7-6) Wednesday. Gamecock pitcher Kat Carter (4-3) gave up only two hits and issued no walks to gain the victory.
"We struggled again today at the plate and she (Kat Carter) did a great job controlling the game," said ULM head coach
Molly Fichtner. "Good job on her end, not a good job on our end. We got ourselves out of innings with easy outs and too many empty at-bats. We've got to get that clutch hitting because we're having trouble scoring runs. On the bright side, our defense is looking better the past two games. We've only had one of our keys each game, we haven't been able to get two of those three keys in a game yet. Today we had great defense."
Jacksonville State's first two runs were scored after the first two batters walked and then moved into scoring position on two passed balls. Another walk loaded the bases and a hit by pitch advanced the runners around for one run scored. The second run came in on single before the Warhawks turned a double play and got a ground out to get out of the inning.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, four Jacksonville State hits produced three runs after a stretch of quiet innings by both teams. With two outs, the Gamecocks had three-straight hits with two outs to extend their lead to 5-0.
Three hits in the sixth inning gave JSU two more runs after a lead-off single took an extra base on a wild pitch and scored on a double. The next batter singled and took second on a Warhawk fielding error and plated the second run for the 7-0 final.
Carter scattered three Warhawk hits with
Lourdes Bacon extending her hitting streak to 10 games with a single and
Kelsey Giddens and
Kennedy Johnson recording one hit each.
Adrianna Chavarria (1-3) started the game for ULM and took the loss.
Victoria Abrams pitched in relief, going five innings with
Kassidy Giddens finishing up the final inning.
"The good thing right now is that we're heading back to Monroe and we're going to have some time to practice," Fichtner said. "We don't play again until Tuesday, so we've got a lot of things that we've got to figure out: hitting-wise, pitching-wise, defense-wise, we've got a lot of lot of work to do. I'm pretty excited that for the next six days we'll be in Monroe getting ready for a game against Louisiana Tech."
ULM plays at Louisiana Tech on Tue., March 8 in Ruston.
