Box Score (vs. West Virginia State)

Box Score (vs. Kutztown)

PEMBROKE – A perfect 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts helped the UNC Pembroke softball team turn six hits into seven runs in a 7-1 win over West Virginia State Saturday morning in the UNCP Invitational at LRA Field. Kutztown took a 5-4, eight-inning affair from the Black & Gold later in the day.
 
It's the second-straight day the Braves (2-2) have split a pair of contests at home, both times winning the first and dropping the second. UNCP scattered 18 hits across the two games, but left 17 total runners on base by stranding six in the win over the Yellow Jackets (1-3) and 11 in the setback to the Golden Bears (2-2).
 
Seven runs in the first three innings against West Virginia State was more than enough for the hosts to glide to their second victory of the season. Six of the nine UNCP starters racked up a single hit and five drove in at least one run.
 
Junior Jamie Johnson scored the game's first run on a wild pitch in the first inning and redshirt-junior Ashleigh Mason scurried home on a Taylor Gerhart sacrifice fly to put the Braves up 2-0 through their first four batters. Junior Toni Nelson singled home Abbey Walters three pitches later and sophomore Haleigh Epperson drew a bases-loaded walk to extend the advantage to 4-0 through one frame.
 
After a scoreless second inning, Epperson drove in her second run of the game on a perfectly executed squeeze play in the third, followed by a Johnson sacrifice fly and a Mason RBI single to put the Black & Gold out front 7-0 after three.
 
Walters (2-0) picked up the win for the home side, tossing four innings and allowing just one run on two hits. Sophomore Taylor Strickland pitched three innings in relief to pick up her first-career save. She surrendered just one hit and struck out a pair of Yellow Jackets.
 
The Braves came one run from a comeback for the ages in game two, as the hosts trailed 4-0 entering the latter half of the seventh inning.
 
Johnson led off with a double down the left-field line and scored the first tally on a Gerhart one-out single. Nelson drove home Walters to cut the deficit to two before freshman Alex Watkins plated Gerhart to pull UNCP within one. With runners on second (Watkins) and third (Epperson) and one out, freshman Eden Brown delivered a sacrifice fly to knot the game at 4-4 and force extra innings.
 
Kutztown reclaimed the lead 5-4 in their half of the eighth before closer Savannah Nierintz set the Braves down in order in the bottom half.
 
Gerhart put together a 3-for-4 performance in the loss, while Johnson, Nelson and Watkins each had a pair of hits. Freshman Malerie Leviner (0-2) dealt all eight innings for the Braves and gave up just three earned runs on nine hits in the tough-luck loss.
 
The Black & Gold wrap up the UNCP Invitational Sunday with a noon outing against Shippensburg. The Raiders (4-0) are the lone undefeated team among the five competing in Pembroke this weekend and toppled the Braves 7-3 Friday afternoon.