Mercer Advances to SoCon Championship on Stevens' No-Hitter
5/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Mercer's Kirsten Stevens threw the first no-hitter in Southern Conference Tournament history to push the Bears past Furman in the consolation semifinal. Mercer will face UT Chattanooga in a rematch of Friday's opener in a winner take all championship game.
Final – Mercer 2, Furman 0
Stevens pitched the first no-hitter in SoCon Tournament history, retiring 21 of the 23 batters that she faced with two first-inning walks as the only blemishes. She struck out 11 batters to earn her 26th victory in her 29th complete game of the season. It was also the first no-hitter of Stevens's career.
The conference's top two pitchers dueled each other in a tight game throughout. Furman's Lindsey Bert pitched a complete game and allowed two runs on six hits with two walks with eight strikeouts, finishing the season with a 22-14 record.
After three scoreless innings to open the game, Emma Andrew picked up the first RBI of the game on a two out standup double to the left field corner, scoring Taylor Rogers. The Bears would pick up back-to-back RBIs in the inning as Taylor Miller singled to left field to score Kaylynn Sloat before a called out at the plate ended the inning.
After the go-ahead runs, Stevens never looked back and struck out six batters through the remaining innings. To complete the no-hitter, Stevens struck out the SoCon Player of the Year, Sieara Bishop, before retiring Taylor Jenkins on a ground out to Andrew at short. Furman's last chance pitted the teams' pitchers against each other as Bert entered the batters box. Stevens out-dueled Bert, striking her out swinging to close out the game.
Top Performers:
- Kirsten Stevens – 7 innings pitched, 0 hits, 11 strikeouts, 2 base-on-balls.
- Taylor Miller – 4 at bats, 2 hits, 1 RBI
- Taylor Rogers – 3 at bats, 1 hit, 1 run
- Emma Andrew – 3 at bats, 1 hit, 1 RBI
Tomorrow's championship game will be a rematch between the top seeded Chattanooga Mocs and No. 3 Mercer. The Bears took two out of three games from the Mocs in the regular season, but UTC evened the score in game one of day three of the SoCon Tournament. With the series tied 2-2 both teams will be playing for bragging rights and the conference championship in the winner take all matchup at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, May 9.
Stay tuned to MercerBears.com for live stats and boxscores and be sure to follow Mercer softball on social media (Twitter / Facebook / Instagram) to keep up with all things Mercer Softball.
