Box Scores (Game 1 | Game 2)

FAYETTEVILLE – Twenty hits, six of which went for extra bases, and a pair of shutouts from Abbey Walters and Malerie Leviner were enough to snap the UNC Pembroke softball team out of a March funk and propel the Black & Gold to 8-0 and 6-0 wins over host Fayetteville State Wednesday evening at Lamon Street Park.

The victories snap an 18-game losing skid for the Braves (19-22), who had not put a tally in the win column since a pair of wins over USC Aiken on March 4. UNCP improves to 22-4 all-time over the Broncos (11-12), including seven straight and an 11-2 mark in Fayetteville.

A pair of crooked numbers in the second and seventh and a single score in the fifth proved more than enough for Walters (10-8) in game one. The senior allowed just one hit and fanned a career-high 11 batters en route to her fourth shutout of the season.

Jessica Auld opened the scoring with her first of two home runs in the second and then capped off the UNCP assault in the seventh with a three-run bomb to center. A pair of RBI singles from Kaitlynn Norton and Lexie Coxe put the Braves up 3-0 through two innings.

Jamie Johnson led off the fifth with her fourth dinger of the season and Taylor Gerhart laid down a successful squeeze bunt in the seventh before Auld's long ball.

Auld, Walters and Coxe each tacked up a pair of hits in the opener, while Johnson and Auld each scored two runs. Auld's four RBI came one short of her season high five back on Feb. 9 at Queens.

The Black & Gold onslaught picked up in the first inning of game two with a pair of runs and the Braves added three more in the third and another run in the sixth to put the game out of reach.

Auld stayed hot at the plate and produced her first four-hit game as a Brave in a 4-for-4 outing, while Rendi Wetherington picked up a trio hits for the second time this season. They both drove in a single run and Wetherington crossed the plate twice.

Gerhart's second squeeze bunt of the day put the first UNCP run on the board in the first and Auld followed with an RBI single. Walters crushed her team-best ninth home run of the season in the third before Gerhart doubled home a run to push the lead to 5-0. The final Black & Gold tally came on a Wetherington single in the sixth.

Leviner (6-11) turned in her third in her 12th complete game in shutout fashion and allowed just two Bronco hits while striking out five.

The Braves jump back into Peach Belt Conference (PBC) play Saturday when rival Francis Marion comes to Pembroke for a 1 p.m. doubleheader at LRA Field. The Patriots (24-16, 6-10 PBC) swept Augusta Wednesday to snap an eight-game losing streak, but lead the all-time series 42-15 over UNCP.