Excellent Pitching and Offense Secures Victory for the Braves in Double Header
The UNCP softball team returned to Pembroke jus one day after an underwhelming performance in a double header against Catawba to host a double header on the UNCP softball field against the Vikings of Elizabeth City State University on Feb.10.
The Braves pitchers would be lights out on the mound on the day, especially in game one and they totaled nearly 20 hits as they cruised to a pair of five inning victories by a combined margin of 21 runs to just three for ECSU, all of which came in game two.
“The fact that you pull a pitcher when she has a no hitter going in a perfect game and you put another pitcher in behind and she does it. You just can’t be more joyful for those pitchers. I’m so proud of Breezy, I’m so proud of Mal (Malerie) and that was exactly what they needed today,” said Head Coach Brittaney Bennett.
Game 1:
The Braves would explode out of the dugout early in the first inning, racking up eight of their 10 runs in the game in the opening inning. The Braves took advantage of a Vikings team playing in their first game of the season as they capitalized on poor pitching and fielding.
However, the most impressive stat of the first game wasn’t even the amount of runs that the Braves totaled. It was the phenomenal pitching that they received from right handed pitchers Malerie Leviner and Breezy Yelton who collaborated to pitch a no hitter shut out across the board.
“I knew in the third inning we had a no-no (no hitter) but I hadn’t really paid attention to the fact their wasn’t a base runner so in the end of the third inning I was like we’re going to throw a lot of strikes and we’re just going to make the hitters brick this thing up so of cours
e we all got silent and we all stuck to our routines and we just tried to not do anything different than we had done,” said Bennett.
Game 2:
While game two didn’t feature the same lights out pitching as the first and even saw the Vikings get their first hit, runner on based and runner batted in (RBI) all in the opening inning. They would keep it relatively close as they trailed by just a pair of runs heading into the bottom of the third until the Braves would tack on four runs.
The Black and Gold would close out game two in the bottom of the fifth inning when the ECS pitcher threw four balls with the bases loaded securing the 11-3 walk off victory for the home team.
