Senior Day shutout
By: Payam Agha-Ghassem, Staff Writer
The Tigers sealed a big conference series win over the Drexel Dragons on Senior Day on Sunday, taking the rubber game of the series 8-0.
The Tigers (31-19, 8-10 Colonial Athletic Conference) honored three seniors — Missy McCormick, Hailey Balk and Macie McGeehan — in a pregame ceremony.
“You don’t realize it’s ending until it’s actually here,” McCormick said. “Everything was put together so beautifully for my teammates. I loved it.”
Afterward, it was back to business for McCormick who took the mound for the Tigers. She pitched a complete game and struck out six Dragon (18-21, 6-11 CAA) batters.
The game remained scoreless until the fourth inning. Freshman Shelby Stracher gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead with a three-run home run to right field. It was Stracher’s seventh home run of the season.
“Before the game, we worked on hitting curveballs and seeing the ball deep into the zone,” Stracher said. “I just saw it really well and made good contact.”
In the top of the fifth inning, McCormick worked out of a major jam. With runners on second and third and nobody out, she struck out the next two batters and forced a pop out to third base.
“You want to get big outs in that situation,” McCormick said. “Strikeouts are huge because a pop out will score a run so I was trying to throw my best stuff and get a strikeout.”
In the bottom of the sixth inning, McGeehan pinch-hit and drove a single to right field to load the bases.
“It was pretty awesome,” McGeehan said. “This is this the last time they’ll see me a play a conference game here, so I’m glad they got to see that.”
Two batters later, freshman infielder Daria Edwards hit a grand slam to give the Tigers a comfortable 7-0 lead. The homer is the Tigers’ 45th the year, which sets a single-season school record.
The win puts the Tigers in a tie for third place with the Elon Phoenix in the conference standings.
The Tigers won the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday, 4-3.
Before the game, the team took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the new Tiger Softball Stadium.
The Tigers took a 3-2 lead into the final inning, but the Dragons tied it up on a solo home run by third baseman Sylvia Llamas.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, freshman outfielder Kendyl Scott drove in Edwards to win the game for the Tigers.
McCormick got the win for the Tigers. She allowed three runs and struck out seven in a complete-game effort.
The Tigers dropped the second game of the doubleheader, 7-0.
The Tigers got just four hits in the game off of Dragons’ starter Taylor Lee.
Freshman Megan Dejter took the mound for the Tigers and pitched 6.2 innings and allowed six earned runs on 15 hits. Dejter is 8-11 on the season with a 3.41 ERA.
The Tigers will play their final two home games of the season on Wednesday against Mount St. Mary’s. First pitch is at 3 p.m.
Then the Tigers head to Delaware (27-21, 5-12 CAA) this weekend for the final conference series of the season. They’ll play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. and a game on Sunday starting at 1 p.m. as well.
“We feel really good and confident,” Stracher said. “We’re going to come out hard and give Delaware our best shot.”
