April 27, 2005

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - (Wednesday, April 27, 2005) The Redhawks lost both games of a road doubleheader to Ohio Valley Conference opponent Jacksonville State at University Field Wednesday afternoon. In game one the Redhawks were shutdown 5-0 by Gamecocks ace Carly Kellam before dropping game two 7-2.

In game one the Redhawks (22-24, 10-12 OVC) were held to only two hits by Kellam and knocked the Redhawks ace Amy Fahnestock (Ste. Genevieve, MO/Wabash CC) out of the game after one inning.

Fahnestock (13-12) gave up four runs on four hits before giving away to Stephanie Huffman (Valmayer, IL/Forest Park CC) who pitched the remainder of the game.

The Gamecocks (36-14, 18-4 OVC) four-run first inning came courtesy of a Breanne Oleman grand slam. Oleman finished with five RBIs, later adding a RBI single off of Huffman in the second inning.

Huffman settled down and only allowed three hits the remainder of the game.

Meanwhile Kellam (20-6) cruised through the Redhawks lineup allowing only three batters to reach base and only one extra base hit while striking out 11.

Michelle Summers (Glendale, CA/Hoover) was the culprit as she recorded her 11th double of the season, going 1-3 from the plate.

Lindsay Pickering (St. Charles, MO/St. Charles West HS) collected the other Redhawks hit with a 1-2 showing.

In game two the Redhawks ended their scoring drought in the second inning. Lyndsey Webb (Las Vegas, NV/Las Vegas HS) hit her ninth double of the season down the left field line. She later moved to third on a Charlene Ramirez (Walnut, CA/Mt. San Antonio CC) groundout. Webb came around to score when Melissa Van Velkinburgh (St. Louis, MO/Cor Jesu Academy) reached on an error scoring Webb.

The Redhawks pulled ahead 2-0 when Van Velkinburgh hit her first career homerun in the fourth inning.

Freshman Elaine Fisher (St. Peters, MO/Francis Howell North) continued her strong pitching but her defense let her down as the Gamecocks capitalized on five Redhawks errors to score seven unanswered runs, only one of which was earned.

Fisher pitched 3.1 innings allowing four runs before giving away to Huffman who completed the game.

The Gamecocks starter Christine Pierce settled down after her shaky start to go the distance and pick up her 11th win of the season.

Summers went 2-4 from the plate to lead the Redhawks. Webb finished 2-3.

The teams conclude the series tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.