No. 21 Upstate Falls to Mercer in A-Sun Tournament
5/8/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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Nashville, Tenn. – Despite Maddison Kieffer collecting three RBIs on the day, No. 21 USC Upstate fell, 4-3, to Mercer in the Spartans' A-Sun Tournament opener Thursday afternoon at Draper Diamond.
Upstate, the No. 1 seed in the A-Sun Championship, will face #2 seed Lipscomb Thursday evening at 5:30 CT in the second elimination game of the tournament. The Spartans fell to 44-6 with the loss. #4 Mercer improved to 36-17 and will face #3 seed Stetson in the winner's bracket Friday at 12:30 p.m.
Upstate broke on top in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs and Kendall Settlemyre on first, Kieffer belted a double off the wall in right center As Settlemyre came all the way around to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead. That followed Anna Miller, the A-Sun Pitcher of the Year, striking out the side in the top of the inning.
Mercer tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the third inning. McKenzie Woody reached to lead off the inning and moved to second on a single by Caroline Taylor with one out. Woody stole third with two outs and scored on Natalie Shiver's RBI single through the left side.
Mercer opened a three-run lead in the top of the fourth, taking advantage of Upstate's pitchers struggling to find consistency. While Miller struck out six through the first three innings, she walked Mercer's leadoff hitter. It was the third time in four innings Upstate allowed the leadoff batter to reach base. After Miller was replaced by Lexi Shubert, Mercer went on to get three walks and a hit batter to do the damage. The Bears got just one hit in scoring their three runs.
Mercer put runners on second and third with one out and loaded the bases when Woody was intentionally walked. Kaytlin Haney walked to bring in a run as the Bears opened a 2-1 lead with one out. Mercer made it a 3-1 lead when Caroline Taylor was then hit by a pitch to drive in a run. Krista Kennedy's ground out to short plated Woody from third to give the Bears a 4-1 lead.
Mercer put runners on first and second with no outs in the top of the fifth, but Shubert got out of the inning without any further damage.
After getting two hits in the first inning, Upstate went hitless over the next four innings. However, the Spartans rallied in the sixth. Settlemyre singled to start things off. After an out, Kieffer came up big again with a two-run home run to right field to get Upstate within a run, 4-3.
Hayley Reinfeld led off the bottom of the seventh with a single to right. After a failed sacrifice bunt attempt, Mercer starter Kirsten Stevens got a ground out for the second Spartan out of the inning, moving Reinfeld to second. Stevens then got a deep fly out to center to end the game and advance to Friday's 12:30 p.m. game against Stetson.
Miller took the loss for Upstate. She allowed two runs on three hits with six strikeouts and fell to 17-4 on the year. Shubert tossed four innings of relief and allowed two runs on two hits. Stevens improved to 15-4 with the win.
Kieffer finished the game 2-for-2 with three RBIs to lead the Spartans at the plate.
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