Box Score (vs. Kutztown)
Box Score (vs. Shippensburg)
PEMBROKE – Preseason All-Peach Belt Conference (PBC) selection
Abbey Walters impressed in the circle and at the dish in the UNC Pembroke softball squad's 4-0 season-opening win over Kutztown Friday morning at LRA Field before the Braves dropped a 7-3 tilt to Shippensburg in the second game of the UNCP Invitational.
The Braves (1-1) improve to 3-1 in season openers under head coach
Brittany Bennett, and have now faced Kutztown (1-1) in three-straight opening day affairs. The Golden Bears have opened their past four campaigns against the Black & Gold and come out on top just once in the four meetings (2015). Shippensburg (2-0) runs their season-debut record to 6-1 in the last seven years.
Walters (1-0), the lone UNCP senior, tossed seven scoreless frames to dismiss Kutztown in the day's first action, allowing just four hits while striking out five and walking one. She had faced the minimum number of batters through four innings before allowing a lead-off single in the fifth. The Bladenboro native tacks up her first shutout of the season on just 92 pitches after recording just one such outing last season in a no-hitter against USC Aiken.
UNCP hit the ground running in the first inning, jumping out to a 1-0 lead on a
Taylor Gerhart single that plated
Jamie Johnson after Johnson led off the frame with a single. The advantage doubled in the second when Johnson drove home
Lexie Coxe on a base knock to left. Two batters later, Johnson scampered home on an RBI single from Walters to push the lead to 3-0.
The fourth and final UNCP run crossed in the fifth on Walters' first home run of the season, a towering shot over the left-field fence. Walters led all Braves with eight long balls last season, but didn't hit her first until March 4.
Coxe was a perfect 3-for-3 with a triple in the victory, while Johnson and Gerhart each racked up a pair of hits.
Toni Nelson added a double and a walk in a trio of plate appearances.
While the day's second game didn't go as planned for the hosts, it wasn't without chances, as the Braves left 13 runners on base in the loss to Shippensburg. Four of the Raiders' seven runs were unearned.
The Raiders struck first with four runs in the second inning, sparked by an Emily Zaring home run to lead off the frame. A single and a passed ball plated runs two, three and four.
A four run deficit became just two in the latter half of the third when Johnson scored on a wild pitch ahead of another Walters RBI single that pushed
Ashleigh Mason across the plate. A costly UNCP error in the fourth allowed a trio of Raider runners to touch home and extend the Shippensburg lead to 7-2.
The Braves got one back in the fifth when Nelson ripped her first home run of the season to left field after hitting just three all of last season. Nelson was the lone Brave to record multiple hits in the second game (2-for-4) and leads all UNCP batters with a .500 average through a pair of contests.
Needing four runs in the final two innings, the Black & Gold stranded two in the sixth and the bases loaded in the seventh in the season's first setback.
The Black & Gold return to action Saturday for another pair of games in the UNCP Invitational. The hosts will do battle with West Virginia State (1-1) at 10 a.m. before a 4 p.m. rematch against Kutztown.
