Box Score (.pdf)

Nashville, Tenn. – Ansley Gilstrap went 3-for-3 with a home run, while Lexi Shubert and Holly McKinnon combined for a one-hitter, as the top seeded USC Upstate softball team opened play at the ASUN Softball Championship on Thursday with a 3-0 victory over the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles at Draper Diamond.

Upstate improves to 42-11 on the season while Florida Gulf Coast falls to 27-29 overall.

• Bottom 1^st – The Spartans scored twice in their first at-bat to take an early 2-0 lead. Karla Beasley began the scoring with her RBI single to left field and Megan Obier followed by driving in Ryan Rector on her RBI sacrifice fly to right field. The single from Beasley capped a stretch of five consecutive singles for Upstate to start the inning.
• Bottom 4^th – Gilstrap extended the Spartans lead to 3-0 on her third home run of the season. She belted a 1-1 pitch from Eagle starter Riley Randolph over the left field fence.

• Upstate won its seventh straight game in the ASUN Softball Championship dating back to the 2015 season.
• Shubert (18-4) earned the win throwing 4.1 innings and gave up just one hit, two walks and two strikeouts.
• McKinnon (4) recorded the save tossing 2.2 scoreless innings of relief and did not allow a hit on one walk and two strikeouts.
• Randolph (16-10) suffered the loss surrendering three runs on eight hits, one walk and one strikeout in 3.2 innings of work.
• Gilstrap reached base four times in the game after finishing with two singles, a homer and a walk. She also had one RBI and scored one run.
• Brittany Case contributed two hits, while Beasley and Obier each tallied one RBI.
• Bree Tourtillott collected the only hit for Florida Gulf Coast.

• The Spartans are back in action this evening when they face No. 2 seed Kennesaw State at 8 p.m. EDT.