UNCG Bring Home 4 More Wins from Florida

By carolinianweb on February 21, 2018 • ( 0 )

Douglas Burns
Staff Writer

PC: Tim Cowie/UNCG Athletics

UNCG Softball went down to Madeira Beach, FL to compete in the Eastern Michigan Madeira Beach Spring Invitational, bringing home four more wins back to Greensboro. The invitational tournament is hosted over a period of weeks, with UNCG being a part of week one. The Spartans played five games against universities around the country, Massachusetts, Ohio, Virgina, University of Missouri at Kansas City and finally against Lipscomb. Their only loss was to Ohio.

The first game that UNCG played was against University of Massachusetts. Massachusetts on Friday in the early afternoon. The game started out strong by scoring two unanswered runs against UNCG in the first two innings – one run in each. In the third inning, neither team could get any runs on the board. In the fourth inning, however, the Spartans rallied. Marissa Sholtes, Melanie Darges, Emily Acquaviva, Becca Kale and Jordan Gontram all scored a run each, bringing UNCG’s score up to five runs, to UMass’ two. Neither team could get points on the board for the fifth and sixth inning, giving the Spartans a 5-2 opening victory.

Immediately after their win over UMass, UNCG went on to play against Ohio. UNCG beat Ohio last week at the CCU tournament in South Carolina. The first two innings of the game were uneventful – with no runs to be seen between the two sides. In the third inning, the Spartan’s Alexis Overdiep scored the first of the games runs, that went unanswered by Ohio. In the fourth inning, Ohio tied up the score by scoring a run of their own. In the fifth inning, Overdiep scored her second run of the day. Unfortunately, Ohio responded with three runs, putting them up over UNCG by one run. In the sixth inning, Ohio scored yet another run, finishing the game with five runs, to UNCG’s two. Surprisingly, UNCG and Ohio’s stats are fairly close together, with both teams scoring upwards of five hits; UNCG with six, and Ohio with seven.

The next day, the Spartans faced off against University of Missouri at Kansas City in the morning. The first inning saw no action and no runs. In the second inning, the Spartans scored two runs unanswered. These two runs were unanswered until the seventh inning, where UKMC scored two runs, but UNCG scored one more, keeping them on top 3-2. Jordan Gontram, Kayleigh Willis and Jasmine Palmer all scored a run in the game. UNCG did a much better job of hitting the ball than UKMC did – with eight hits to UKMC’s three.

Later in the day, the Spartans faced off against UVA. The game started out well for the Spartans, with their first run coming in the first inning. The second inning brought a run to the scoreboard for UVA, tying the game up. The third inning brought UNCG their second run, putting them back on top. The fourth inning failed to see anyone put a run on the board, but the fifth inning saw both teams put a run on the board. Makenna Matthijs, Gabrielle Cubbage and Jordan Gontram all scored a run for the Spartans. UNCG scored three runs on nine hits to UVA’s two runs of five hits.

In the final game, against Lipscomb, UNCG came from behind. With a largely scoreless game – only two of the seven innings saw a score – UNCG won 6-2. The first three innings were a goose egg, but the fourth inning saw Lipscomb score the only two runs that UNCG would concede in the game. In the fifth and sixth inning, no runs were scored for or against the Spartans. In the seventh inning, the Spartans pulled off a mammoth victory by scoring six runs against Lipscomb. Alexis Overdiep, Makenna Matthijs, Emily Acquaviva, Jasmine Palmer, Becca Kale and Rachael McClaskey each scored a run against Lipscomb. Lipscomb had many chances – eleven hits – to score more runs, but the Spartans proved to make their shots count with only seven amongst them.

UNCG Softball’s next tournament will be hosted here in Greensboro for the UNCG invitationals this upcoming weekend, starting Feb. 24 at 2 p.m., when they open the tournament against Seton Hall.