Fri, Apr 3, 2009 - [Softball]
HENDERSON, Tenn. - Tarrah Tucker tossed her fifth shutout of the season to help the No. 20 Freed-Hardeman Lady Lions split a double-header with No. 12 Martin Methodist (Tenn.) College on Friday at Morgan Stadium.
Tucker became the first pitcher all season to hold the RedHawks (24-7, 3-1) scoreless. They had entered today's games averaging 6.4 runs per game and had scored fewer than three runs only three times in 29 games.
The shutout, a 3-0 win for FHU, came after the Lady Lions (15-5, 3-1) committed five errors and stranded 11 runners in a 7-2 loss to begin the day.
Martin Methodist got a run in the top of the first on a throwing error by third baseman Brittany Yates with two outs, but that would be all they could muster in the first four innings as FHU starter Britney Caldwell followed the error by retiring 10 in a row.
The Lady Lions looked poised to take the lead in the bottom of the third after loading the bases with one out, but RedHawk ace Sally Gale (12-3) got out of the jam by striking out Caldwell and getting Carmen Gulley to ground into a force play for the third out of the inning. Gale did dodge a pair of bullets, though, after line drives down the left-field line by Jill Brock and Brittany Bradford went foul by mere inches with Traci Gibbons coming in from third.
MMC finally got back on the board in the fifth after two FHU errors and a Gale bunt that spun right on the first base line loaded the bases to set up a pair of hard grounders up the middle that were turned into outs by second baseman Augusta McClary. The outs, however, were force plays at second base allowing two runs to score.
The RedHawks put the game out of reach with four more runs in the seventh thanks to two more Lady Lion errors and a two-run homerun by Alicia Boris. FHU got two back in the bottom of the inning on a Caldwell sacrifice fly and a Yates single, but Gale again got out of the jam to finish the game.
In the second game, it was FHU that struck first. Steverson led off the game with a single and, after Brock moved her to second with a sacrifice bunt, came home on a Caldwell double into the right-center alley. The Lady Lions had the bases loaded with one out, but MMC starter Nicole Curtis got Yates and Camille Cunningham to fly out into shallow left to escape the jam.
Freed-Hardeman got two more in the third after Bradford and Caldwell opened the inning with back-to-back doubles followed by a run-scoring single by Cunningham.
Three runs would be plenty for Tucker (10-1), who got out of a few jams of her own. The senior ace struck out Tiffany McCormick with runners on second and third and two out in the fourth; with runners on first and second with two out in the seventh, she got Alicia Boris to ground out to third to end the game.
Freed-Hardeman returns to action on Monday as it hosts Mid-Continent (Ky.) in a double-header to begin at 4:00 PM.
