Bears Split A Pair Of Walk-Offs At Spring In The Springs

Saturday, March 2

Boiling Springs, N.C.

1 p.m.

Mercer University

8-5

North Carolina A&T

6-10

North Carolina A&T

Mercer

Bears Split A Pair Of Walk-Offs At Spring In The Springs

3/2/2024 9:28:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Todd Anderson, anderson_t02@mercer.edu

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – The Mercer softball team got complete game outings from freshman Gabby Ellis and sophomore Grace Taylor, but were forced to settle with a split of walk-off affairs on Saturday in opening-day action at the Gardner-Webb-hosted Spring In The Springs tournament.

Mercer (8-6) rallied for lone runs in the bottom of the seventh and ninth innings to fuel a 3-2 walk-off victory over North Carolina A&T (6-10) in its Friday opener. The Bears grabbed a 1-0 lead in the opening frame of its Friday nightcap with Gardner-Webb (12-6), but the Bulldogs scored lone runs in the sixth and seventh innings to walk-off a 2-1 triumph.

Ellis (1-2) threw all nine innings in the win over the Aggies, striking out a season-high eight batters and yielding a pair of earned runs to notch her first collegiate victory. Taylor (3-2) struck out four and scattered four hits across 6-2/3 innings pitched against Gardner-Webb, but saddled the tough-luck loss anyway.

DOUBLEHEADER SUMMARY
GAME 1 FINAL	Mercer 3, North Carolina A&T 2 (9 Innings)
PITCHERS	WP: Gabby Ellis (1-2) LP: Sharla Kirkpatrick (2-4)

GAME 2 FINAL	Gardner-Webb 2, Mercer 1
PITCHERS	WP: Kalyn Kyle (5-2) LP: Grace Taylor (3-2)

RECORDS	Mercer (8-6, 0-0 SoCon); North Carolina A&T (6-10, 0-0 MEAC); Gardner-Webb (12-6, 0-0 Big South)

KEY INNINGS VS. NC A&T
BOT 7	Avery Barton's 2-out single up the middle was enough to plate Alyssa Woods from second base. Woods raced around third base on the infield hit, and slid under the tag of Camryn Caldwell to send the game into extras.
BOT 9	With the international tiebreaker in effect, Janessa Plummer's sacrifice bunt moved Laura Vigna to third base, and Alyssa Woods followed with a seeing-eye single through the right side to end the ballgame.

KEY INNINGS VS. GARDNER-WEBB
BOT 6	Ella Christopher laced a 2-out double into the gap in right field, and Alyssa Bonilla followed with a RBI single to the same spot that plated the game-tying run.
BOT 7	Gardner-Webb used a trio of walks to load the bases full of Bulldogs, and Carmen McRae drew a full-count walk moments later to force in the game-winning run.

MU LEADERS VS. NCAT	NCAT LEADERS VS. MERCER
Avery Barton 3-4, RBI Kassidy Moore 2-4, R Alyssa Woods 2-5, RBI Gabby Ellis 9.0 IP, 8 K	Brenay Howard 3-4, 2B, RBI Destiny Sims 1-3, BB, 2B, RBI Kayla Taylor 1-2, 2B

MU LEADERS VS. GWU	GWU LEADERS VS. MERCER
Kassidy Moore 1-2, HBP, RBI Tori Hedgecock 1-3, BB, R	Alyssa Bonilla 1-1, RBI Ella Christopher 1-2, 2B, R Adrienne Visintine 1-2, 2 BB

UP NEXT
The Bears will close out their portion of round-robin tournament play on Sunday at the Spring In The Springs tournament. MU is scheduled for a 9 a.m. contest with Binghamton (8-4), before getting a rematch with Gardner-Webb (12-6) at 1 p.m.

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