Gilstrap's Homer Helps Upstate to 8-1 Victory over Monmouth in USF-Under Armour Invitational Finale

Sunday, March 12

USF-Under Armour Invitational

11:15 am

University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics

23-4

Monmouth

2-10

Monmouth

USC Upstate

3/12/2017 12:00:00 AM | Softball

Box Score

Box Score (.pdf)

Clearwater, Fla. – Ansley Gilstrap hit a 3-run homer and Holly McKinnon struck out six batters to lead the USC Upstate softball team to an 8-1 victory over the Monmouth Hawks on Sunday morning in its final game of the USF-Under Armour Invitational at the Eddie C. Moore Complex.

Upstate improves to 23-4 overall with the victory while Monmouth falls to 2-10 on the season.

Scoring Breakdown

Bottom 2^nd – The Spartans used a 5-run inning to break the game open and lead the Hawks 5-0. Kayla Hussey began the scoring for Upstate with her 2-run double to right field scoring Megan Obier and Kristen Wright. Gilstrap followed with her 3-run home run and extended the lead to five runs.
Top 3^rd – Monmouth cut the Spartans lead to 5-1 in the third after Amber Wozniak hit a solo home run.
Bottom 4^th – Upstate responded with a single run to push its lead back to five runs, 6-1, in the fourth on an RBI single to left field by Karla Beasley.
Bottom 5^th – The Spartans added another run to go ahead 7-1 when Kendsey Chappelear drove in Obier with her RBI groundout to second base.
Bottom 6^th – Brittany Case knocked in Beasley with her two-out RBI single to center field to give Upstate an 8-1 lead over the Hawks.

Notables

McKinnon (12-2) earned the win after limiting Monmouth to just one run on one hit and one walk to go with the six strikeouts in 4.2 innings of work.
McKinnon has eight appearances this season of giving up one run and now leads the ASUN in victories.
Sydney Underhill (0-3) suffered the loss after pitching two innings of relief and surrendered five runs on six hits, two walks and one strikeout.
Lexi Shubert tossed 2.1 scoreless innings of relief and allowed three hits, one walk and two strikeouts.
Gilstrap compiled her second game this season with three or more RBI after driving in four against Georgetown on Feb. 18.
Hussey tied her season-high of two RBI and finished the game with one hit and one run scored.
Beasley and Ryan Rector led the Spartans offensively with two hits while Gilstrap had a game-high three RBI.
Gilstrap also scored two runs along with Obier.
Wozniak, Rachel Shotzbarger, Justene Reyes and Katie Baron all had one hit apiece for the Hawks, while Wozniak contributed one RBI.
Upstate posted 11 hits in the contest to give it six games this season with a double-digit hit total.

UP NEXT

The Spartans close out their six-game road trip on Wednesday, March 15 at 6 p.m. against South Carolina.
The game will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.

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