Box Score Video Highlights
Albany, N.Y. -- Courtney Coppersmith (York, Pa.) struck out 15 and held the top offense in the America East to one run on one hit, and Madison Wilson (Abingdon, Md.) drove in the winning runs as the UMBC Softball team defeated host UAlbany, 3-1, on Sunday to pick up its first ever road series win against the Great Danes.
It was only the second series win in 17 overall series against UAlbany, and the first since a home sweep in 2007. The teams started playing annually when the Retrievers joined the America East for the Spring 2004 season. UMBC is now 1-7 in series played at UAlbany.
The Great Danes entered Sunday with a league-best .316 batting average, .21 higher than the second-place Retrievers.
Coppersmith improved to 10-2 on the season as she shut the hosts down in her two games pitched, going 2-0 with 36 strikeouts, three walks, four hits and three earned runs in 14 innings pitched.
Wilson finished the weekend 4-for-10 with two homers and seven RBI.
Maddie Daigneau (New River, Ariz.) hit a leadoff triple to start the game, and Julia Keffler (Huntingtown, Md.) immediately drove her in with a single to put UMBC (15-8, 4-2 AE) up 1-0. UAlbany (12-16, 3-6 AE) would tie the game on a leadoff solo homer in the second, but that would end up being the hosts only hit of the game.
It would remain tied until the fifth when Meghan Dempsey (Collegeville, Pa.), Daigneau and Keffler hit three-straight hits to start the inning. After a strikeout, Wilson smacked a ball up the middle, the second baseman made a diving effort to keep the ball in the infield and managed to touch second for the force out while on the ground, but Dempsey and Daigneau both scored on the play to put the Retrievers up 3-1.
The Great Danes would threaten in the sixth, when a hit batter and a walk put two on with two outs. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, but Coppersmith got a strikeout to escape the jam. She then worked a perfect seventh, punctuated by a pair of strikeouts to seal the victory.
Daigneau and Keffler each had multi-hit games, Daigneau scoring a pair of runs and Keffler stealing a base.
UMBC will head to New England to face conference leader UMass Lowell in a three-game series next weekend.
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