Spartans take two out of three from rival Elon

The UNCG Softball team defeated SoCon rival, Elon, 2-1, in the series they played this past weekend, securing a sixth seed in the upcoming SoCon Tournament.

Saturday saw a doubleheader, with game one, being decided by a 7-1 advantage for UNCG, (24-31, 9-12).

Amber Harrell achieved a career-high 12 strikeouts in game two, which the Lady Spartans also won, but at a score of 4-3.

In game one, Lady Spartan Jordan Jewett was 3-for-5, with two runs and two RBI's, while teammates Brittany Ausley, Lyndsay Mouse, Alex Emeterio, Mary Catherine Vercoe and Emily Akiyama, each had a hit.

In the top of the seventh, Akiyama hit a lead off homer on the very first pitch, and later in the inning Jewett hit a RBI single to bring in teammate, Laura Olenderski.

Patti Weber led the Phoenix with a .500 batting average on the day.

UNCG pitcher Hannah Angel notched a career-high, 13th win of the season, allowing just one run, on eight hits, and four walks. She struck out six.

Elon pitcher, Erin O'Shea (6-10) allowed three runs on four hits, and six walks, in only three innings of work.

Teammate, Melanie Helterbran pitched the final four innings, giving up four runs - two earned - on four hits, and a walk.

In game two, with Elon trailing by two, Weber hit a line drive homer in the top of the seventh inning to make the score 4-3, but that was as close as the Phoenix would come to contesting the Lady Spartan's lead.

Harrell (8-12) took the mound, already with 11 strikeouts, and with two outs she struck out Helterbran on a 3-2 count, to get her third consecutive win.

Phoenix pitcher, Pam DelPizzo fell to 4-12 on the season, giving up four runs, on seven hits, and three walks, in six innings of play.

Harrell led the Lady Spartans pitchers with 122 strikeouts this season. She also moved past Winn Hazlegrove (416), on the all-time school strikeout list, to trail only, teammate Hannah Angel (472), who led the Lady Spartans with her 13 wins on the season, and UNCG pitching Coach Vanessa Oakes (565).

Lady Spartans Jordan Jewett and Alex Emeterio each had two hits in game two, while on the other side of the diamond; Hannah Shelton had two for the Phoenix.

Other, Lady Spartans to notch hits in game one were, Brittany Ausley, Lyndsay Mouse, Vercoe, and Whitney Sirois.

In the third game of the doubleheader, on Sunday the Lady Spartans were defeated thanks to a solid pitching effort from Elon's Erin O'Shea.

The Southern Conference Tournament starts this Wednesday, May 6, in Chattanooga, Tenn. and runs until Saturday, May 9.

The Lady Spartans are scheduled to play No. 3 seed, Appalachian State, at 2:00 p.m. at Jim Frost Stadium in Chattanooga.