Spartans Sweep UNF Behind Play of Childers, Harris
4/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Spartanburg, S.C. – Ericka Harris knocked a walk-off solo home run to lead USC Upstate to a 1-0 win in game one and Morgan Childers earned both victories to lead the Spartans to a doubleheader sweep of North Florida Friday evening in A-Sun softball action at Cyrill Stadium. Upstate won by scores of 1-0 and 5-1.
Childers (Kings Mountain, N.C.) improved to 23-3 on the year, inching closer to the A-Sun's all-time wins record. She now has 107 career victories, just one shy of the all-time record of 108 held by Nikki Myers (Florida Atlantic, 1999-02).
Upstate improved to 32-5 overall and 4-2 in the A-Sun with the sweep. The Spartans will play host to Jacksonville Saturday afternoon at 4:00 in another conference doubleheader. North Florida fell to 17-20 overall and 1-5 in the A-Sun. The Ospreys travel to Johnson City, Tenn., for a league doubleheader Saturday.
"I was extremely proud of putting together two games with no errors," said Upstate head coach Chris Hawkins, who has now reached 590 career wins. "We really bounced back from a bad defensive effort the last time out. Ericka seemed to struggle in the first game, but came up big when we needed her. It was nice to see Ashley (Butler) step up and deliver for us as well. It was good to pull out the win in the first game and come through with runs in the second."
Childers was strong in game one. She allowed just four hits and struck out 11 to earn the win. Her effort in the circle kept the Spartans in the game until Harris (Piedmont, S.C.) delivered the big hit in the bottom of the seventh.
Prior to the seventh inning, Upstate had gotten just one hit off of UNF starter Cortney Radke. In the seventh, Lauren Quevedo (Wellington, Fla.) led off and lined out to the right fielder in foul territory. Harris then came up and took the pitch over the wall in right center to give the Spartans the win. Radke took the loss and fell to 15-12 on the year.
Upstate turned in a better offensive game in the second game. The Spartans jumped on top with three runs in the bottom of the first and finished the game with five runs on six hits.
Upstate starter Hannah Alexander (Lexington, N.C.) gave up a run in the top of the first on Jackie Reese's RBI single. However, Upstate immediately responded with three runs in the bottom of the frame. Janna Lewis (Huntersville, N.C.) scored on a fielding error in left field, Katie Zauner (Canby, Ore.) plated a run with a sacrifice fly and pinch runner Erin Schattle (Goose Creek, S.C.) scored from third on a wild pitch to give the Spartans a 3-1 lead.
Upstate added to the lead with a run in the fourth on Harris' RBI single, and made it a 5-1 game with a run in the fifth on Ashley Butler's (Laurens, S.C.) RBI double.
Childers entered the game to start the fourth inning in relief of Alexander. She tossed four scoreless innings, allowing just one walk and striking out six. She did not give up a hit in the four innings of work to earn her second win of the day.
Butler led Upstate at the plate, finishing with two hits with a run and RBI.
