April 9, 2008

Box 1
Box 2

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Seniors Ashley Shurtleff (Colton, Calif.) and Mika Tanji (Honolulu, Hawaii) each collected four hits on the day as the St. Andrews Presbyterian College softball team swept Conference Carolinas foe Queens University of Charlotte, 6-5 (8) & 3-1, on Wednesday evening at Park Road Park.

The Lady Knights ripped 19 hits and walked six times to improve to 11-32 overall and 5-15 in the conference. The Royals fell to 10-23 and 6-10.

St. Andrews connected for 12 hits in the opener winning the game, 6-5, with two runs in the first extra inning. A quartet of Knights all had two hits including A. Shurtleff, Tanji, senior Erin Haugen (Fort Mill, S.C.), freshman Jasmine Dobbin (Pikeville, N.C.), and junior Tiffany Capone (Jacksonville, N.C.).

SAPC grabbed a 4-0 lead with one run in the first and three runs in the third. Sophomore Brianna Shurtleff (Colton, Calif.) drove in two runs in the third to highlight the Knights scoring.

Queens forced extra innings by scoring one run in the fifth and three runs in the bottom of the seventh.

The Knights would not be out done plating two more runs in the eighth. Capone drove in B. Shurtleff, who started the inning on second base, with a single up the middle. Sophomore Nicole Easter (Lumberton, N.C.) then plated Tanji for what proved to be the game-winning run with an RBI-groundout.

The Royals were able to drive in their international tiebreaker runner but with the bases loaded and two outs, senior starter Samantha Stewart (Ft. Pierce, Fla.) was able to force a pop-out to end the game. Stewart had seven strikeouts en route to her eighth win of the season.

Easter added drove in two more runs as St. Andrews was able to hold off Queens, 3-1, in the nightcap to complete the doubleheader sweep.

The Knights quickly scored the first run of the game by taking advantage of a couple Royals errors in the top of the first before adding two more unearned runs in the third.

QUC scored its only run of the contest in the fifth. Both teams had several opportunities to score more runs as each team left nine runners on base.

Tanji and A. Shurtleff each ripped two hits for St. Andrews in the finale. Tanji also picked up her third win of the season on the mound tossing a 7.0 inning complete game.

St. Andrews visits non-conference Fayetteville State University on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.