Christie Wright tossed a complete game one-hitter, but Trojan miscues led to three unearned runs as Mount Olive fell to Wingate 3-1 in game one of a non-conference softball doubleheader Sunday at Nancy Chapman Cassell Field. The loss snapped the Trojans' four-game winning streak.
Wingate completed the sweep with a 13-4 run-rule victory in game two. The Bulldogs broke a 4-4 tie on Alexis Burrell's third-inning grand slam home run.
Mount Olive (4-2) rallied from a 2-0 deficit in game two with four runs in the bottom of the second. Jennifer Jones led off with a single to right and tagged from first on a fly out to deep left field. Jones scored when Katie Devenuto's single to left was misplayed.
Kalie Smith then capped a 10-pitch at bat with a double to left center to tie the game 2-2. After Anna Munizza drew a walk, Katie Moore's two-out single loaded the bases. An overthrow on Robbin Kennedy's ground ball to short brought home two more runs as the Trojans took a 4-2 lead.
After Wingate (4-2) tied the game on an error and a wild pitch in the top of the third, Burrell drove a 3-2 pitch over the left-center field fence to put the Bulldogs ahead to stay 8-4. Brittany Barrineau's two-run double highlighted a five-run fourth inning. Wingate reliever Ashley Brown (2-1) retired nine of the final 11 Trojan batters for the win.
Mount Olive starter Lauren Smith (2-1) struck out the side in the top of the first and finished with eight strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings.
In the opener, Wright (1-1) also struck out the side in the first inning and escaped trouble in the second, but Wingate put two runs on the scoreboard in the third. An infield error and two walks loaded the bases and Brittany Loudermilt's rbi-single to right – Wingate's only hit in the contest - plated the first run of the game. A wild pitch gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead. Three Trojan errors in the sixth led to another unearned run for Wingate.
Mount Olive rallied in the bottom of the seventh as Kayla Voorhees drew a two-out pinch-hit walk and pinch-hitter Tiffany Hawley was hit by a pitch. Voorhees scored on Elizabeth Overman's opposite-field double to left, putting the tying run in scoring position and the winning run at the plate. But Bulldog pitcher Miranda Paul (1-1) induced a fly out to center for her first complete game of the season.
Overman had two of Mount Olive's three hits. Moore, who was scratched from the starting lineup due to illness, pinch hit in the seventh and grounded out to third, ending her 17-game hitting streak. Moore hit safely in the final 13 games of last year and the first games of this season.
Mount Olive returns to action Saturday as the Trojans play host to West Virginia State in a non-conference twinbill. First pitch is noon at Nancy Chapman Cassell Field.