March 9, 2010

Box Score

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The Saint Joseph's softball team dropped a hard-fought 5-4 game at South Florida Tuesday evening. The Hawks, who face Penn State Wednesday in a neutral-site game in Clearwater, Florida, fell to 6-4 on the year with the loss.

The Hawks got on the board in the top of the first as senior Brooke Darreff drove in the game's first run on a double. Saint Joseph's took advantage of a fielding error by the bulls to extend its lead to 2-0 after the first half inning.

South Florida (8-7) answered back in the bottom half of the inning, touching up Hawks' sophomore starter Erin Gallagher for a pair of runs. The Bulls scored their first run on a fielding error by the Hawks as Tara Toscano scored on a misplayed ball down the left field line by Alison Savarese. Savarese would score on a RBI single up the middle on the next at bat.

The Bulls opened a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the second as Savarese's RBI single gave her team its first lead.

The Hawks answered in the top of the fifth with a run, but South Florida answered back with a run of its own in the bottom of the inning.

In the top of the sixth, junior Taylor Korpita singled home Bernadette Moran to tie the score at four all.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, a one out single by Cat Olnick scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh and Kristen Gordon retired the side in order for USF to end the game in the seventh.

Individually, junior Laura Cardone and Moran each picked up a pair of hits, while Gallagher was the hard-luck loser, falling to 5-3 on the year after allowing just two earned runs, while striking out six in 4.2 innings of work.