BALTIMORE, MD. – The UMBC softball
team (5-7) split its final two games of the 2012 UMBC Retriever
Classic, shutting out Niagara, 1-0, and falling in extra innings,
10-4, to Iona. In four games over the weekend, the
Retrievers picked up three wins, while only falling once.
In the Retrievers first game against Niagara, senior Katie Ferguson
(North East, Md./North East/ Chesapeake CC) shutout the Purple
Eagles throwing a complete game one-hitter. Ferguson
(2-4) recorded eight strikeouts and did not allow a base runner
beyond first.
Niagara's Kim Bryson was charged with the loss despite only
giving up one earned run on two hits. The sophomore
registered ten strikeouts, but walked five batters.
"Katie [Ferguson] pitched a gem," said head coach Joe
French. "The only bad inning all weekend was the last one
[against Iona]."
The game was the definition of a pitchers' dual, with the two
teams combining for only three hits.
After Ferguson sent Niagara down without yielding a run in the
first four innings, the senior was rewarded in the bottom half of
the frame.
Patient hitting led to three walks in the inning for UMBC, with
the last one coming with the bases loaded, forcing senior Ashley Carver
(Swoyersville, Pa./Wyoming Valley West) across the
plate. Carver had singled earlier in the inning to pick
up one of two UMBC hits. Junior Kaela Mason (Bel
Air, Md./Harford Tech) was the only other Retriever in the hit
column against Niagara.
Ferguson allowed only one baserunner over the next two innings
to pick up her second win of the year.
Game two with Iona was an offensive barrage, compared to the
first contest, with the Retrievers and Gaels pounding out 21
combined hits and 14 runs.
Iona however, got the better of the play to improve to 7-4 on
the season with a 10-4 win.
After the visitors posted two runs in the top of the second
inning, the Retrievers responded with a run of the own in the
bottom half on an RBI single by Courtney Reinfeld (Parkland,
Fla./Stoneman Douglas).
UMBC took the lead the next inning as sophomore Jessica Warner
(Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) hit a three-run homerun, her first
of the year and sixth of her career to push the lead to two,
4-2.
The Retrievers had a chance to build on the lead in the fifth,
but could not convert with runners on first and second with only
one down.
The Gaels eventually came back, scoring once in the sixth and
again in the seventh, to force extra innings.
Iona then crossed the plate six times in the top of the eighth
to build an insurmountable lead.
Junior Heather Brown
(Pasadena, Md./Northeast) was charged with the loss after giving up
six runs, three of the earned, over seven plus innings of work.
The Retrievers return to the field on Thursday when they travel
to local rival Towson. UMBC then hosts its second
straight weekend tournament, the UMBC Dawg Pound Invitational,
beginning on Sat., Mar. 10.
