HAMMOND, La. – Senior Dylinn Stancil went a perfect five-for-five with five singles and one RBI to lead UAB softball to a 9-3 victory against Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday night.
“Dylinn had a solid game at the plate for us tonight,” said head coach Jimmy Kolaitis. “She hit the ball hard to all sides of the field all night.”
Analyse Petree, Jenna Olszewski and Samantha Bean each recorded two RBI as six different Blazers knocked in runs. Sarah Cespedes earned the win after coming on in relief of Emily Kachel in the bottom of the third. Cespedes pitched 3.2 innings with seven strikeouts while giving up only one unearned run.
“Sarah did a great job of coming into the ball game for us and creating some energy with her tempo in the circle,” added Kolaitis.
UAB (5-1) struck first in the first inning as Stancil got aboard with a line drive single to left center and Sierra Frazier walked. Petree singled to left to load up the bases for Olszewski who was then hit by a pitch, bringing in Stancil for the first run of the game.
Southeastern Louisiana (5-1) responded in the bottom of the first with an RBI double from Ella Manzer that scored Aeriyl Mass, who reached on a walk.
Ashton Clem reached safely on a bunt to start the second inning and another well placed bunt single from KK Crocker moved Clem over to third. Faith Hegh singled up the middle to score Clem. Stancil loaded the bases with her second single of the night, but the Blazers left three stranded in the second to keep the lead at 2-1.
The Blazers blanked Southeastern Louisiana in the second but failed to get any runners across the plate in the top of the third, keeping the score the same.
Cespedes replaced Kachel in the bottom of the third after the Lions got two runners on base following a single and a walk. Cespedes walked the first batter she faced to load the bases with one out but pitched her way out of the jam ending the inning with back-to-back strikeouts.
UAB broke things open in the top of the fourth recording four straight hits to lead off the inning. Hegh doubled over the head of the left fielder allowing Stancil to record her lone RBI with her third single of the game. Frazier followed with an infield single before Petree knocked in Stancil on a double off the left field wall. Natalie Erwin reached base with an infield single that scored Reece Martin, who was running for Frazier, from third to bring the score to 5-1.
The Lions went three up three down in the bottom of the fourth as Cespedes recorded two more strikeouts bringing her total to four. The Blazers followed suit with a three up three down inning of their own in the top of the fifth.
Southeastern Louisiana got a run back in the bottom of the fifth after a pair of errors from the UAB infield allowed Mass to score her second run of the game.
With the Blazers leading 5-2 in the top of the sixth Stancil poked her fourth single of the night through the right side of the field to get on base for Frazier. Frazier reached safely on a fielder’s choice and Stancil beat the tag at second to put two on with no outs. Stancil advanced to third on a pop fly and scored when the left fielder dropped a pop up from Olszewski. Another error allowed Erwin to reach safely and Clem walked to load the bases for Bean. Bean laced a two RBI single to right field scoring Olszewski and Erwin to make the score 8-2.
Cespedes held the Lions scoreless again in the bottom of the sixth, tallying her seventh strikeout of the night.
The Blazers added one more in the top of the seventh as Stancil singled for the fifth time and Frazier walked, setting up a sac fly from Petree to increase the lead to 9-2.
Amy Woodham came on in the bottom of the seventh to close things out for the Blazers who kept the Lions off the board in the final frame.
“Some games we just need to find a way to win,” said Kolaitis. “We did that today. We did not look as sharp as we were last weekend. Thankfully, we have a few days to make some adjustments before we go into this weekend. The key for us is to take a game like today and make us better as we move forward in the season.”
UAB is the winner of its last three games and moves to 5-1 to start the season looking toward another big weekend at the Scrapyard Tournament in Conroe, Texas. The Blazers will face South Dakota State, Texas A&M- Corpus Christi, ULM and McNeese State from Feb. 14-16 at the Scrapyard Sports Complex.
Softball season tickets are on sale by purchasing the 2019-20 Gold Card for $65 here. The Gold Card is an exclusive offer that grants you admission into all UAB men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball events for the upcoming academic year. Contact the UAB Ticket Office at (205) 975-UAB1 for more details.
For more information on the UAB softball team, follow @UAB_SB on Twitter and Instagram.
# UAB #
