Dover, Del.-- Freshman Ashley Della Guardia (Phoenixville, Pa.) continued the torrid start to her career, extending her consecutive plate appearances with an RBI streak to start her career to five, and pitcher Courtney Coppersmith (York, Pa.) struck out 13 in five scoreless innings for the second straight time as the UMBC Softball team split at Delaware State on Saturday,

Game 1

UMBC (3-1) dominated wire-to-wire in a 9-0 game one win. After an error to leadoff the game, Julia Keffler had an RBI single to score Maddie Daigneau (New River, Ariz) and put the Retrievers up 1-0. Sierra Pierce (Youngstown, Ohio) then had an RBI groundout a few batters later to make it 2-0. 

Meghan Dempsey (Collegeville, Pa.) started the second inning with a single and would score on a double by Della Guardia, who was then brought in two batters later on a single by Daigneau. Coppersmith then aided her cause with an RBI ground out to push the lead to 5-0 in the second. 

A Della Guardia RBI groundout scored Pierce in the third to make it a 6-0 advantage. Coppersmith struck out the first eight Delaware State (2-2) batters of the game, and 10 of the first 12 batters total. The only ones to not strikeout were on a two-out ground out in the third and a one out single in the fourth that was quickly erased on a caught stealing. 

After Coppersmith struck out the side in the fifth, the Retrievers added to their lead in the sixth thanks to some two-out magic. Madison O'Berg (Lorain, Ohio) got a two-out single, and Daigneau then re-entered to pinch run and would score on Madison Wilson (Abingdon, Md.) RBI double. 

Madie Leach (Erie, Pa.) entered to pitch to start the sixth and worked a scoreless frame. Freshman Brooke Dooley (Bear, Del.) picked up her first career hit to start the top of the seventh , and that was followed by singles from Pierce and Shanel Stott (Cumberland, Md) to load the bases with none out. After a double-play, Della Guardia ripped an RBI single through the left side to score Pierce, followed by a pinch-hit RBI single for Logan Hawker (Mechanicsville, Md.) to make it 9-0. Leach worked a perfect seventh to seal the victory. 

Coppersmith went five innings, striking out 13, while walking none and allowing just one hit, she also stole a base. Leach struck out one and allowed just one hit in two innings. Della Guardia went 3-4 with three RBI, while Keffler went 3-3 with a stolen base. Pierce went 2-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, while Daigneau went 1-4 with three runs scored. Chloe Obispo (Virginia Beach, Va.) picked up her first hit of the season in the contest as well.

Game 2

UMBC took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning after Pierce scored on a wild pitch and pinch-runner Julia Colton (Elkridge, Md.) scored on a Stott RBI single, but the Hornets tied it up in the third after three straight singles and an error. 

Daigneau started the fifth with a single, stole second and then moved to third on a ground out. She then scored on a Della Guardia triple to reclaim the UMBC lead. The lead was short lived as a two out error followed by a walk allowed the tying run to score on a single. UMBC almost escaped a jam in the bottom of the sixth, but DSU beat out a double play ball that scored a run and put them up 4-3. Della Guardia hit a one out double in the top of the seventh, and her pinch-runner Obispo eventually moved to second on a Pierce two out walk. A wild pitch put two in scoring position, but a fly out ended the game. 

O'Berg started in the circle and went innings, allowing just one earned run (3 runs total), while striking out three. Gillian McCarthy (Northfield, N.J.) took the tough-luck loss after coming in to start the sixth and DSU subsequently taking the lead.

Dempsey went 2-2 and Della Guardia went 2-3 as they were the only Retrievers with multi-hit games 

The two teams meet for another double header tomorrow at noon.