TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Drake softball team returned to the diamond to begin its weekend at the Easton Bama Bash on Friday afternoon with a pair of games against Southern Utah and No. 17 Virginia Tech. The Bulldogs fell in both contest losing a close one to the Thunderbirds, 2-1, and coming up short against the Hokies, 8-0.
Southern Utah 2, Drake 1
It was a pitcher's duel between the Bulldogs and the Thunderbirds through the early stages of the contest. Drake's
Peyton Driscoll and Southern Utah's Emily Delgado kept the bats quiet for both sides as the first three frames went scoreless.
The scoreless tie was eventually broken in the fourth inning by the Thunderbirds. With runners on the corners, Amyah Boostedt laid a bunt down the third base line, which brought home a run to give the Thunderbirds the lead.
The Bulldogs offense was kept off the scoreboard over the fifth and sixth innings, but got something going in the top of the seventh. Drake placed two runners on after a pair of singles and turned to
Frankie Rita for a clutch base knock. The sophomore delivered with shot back up the middle and knotted the game up at 1-1.
In the home half of the seventh, the Bulldog defense ran into some trouble. Following a leadoff single, a throwing error from Drake allowed Southern Utah to place runners on first and third with no outs. A couple batters later, another error by the Bulldogs led to the winning run coming across the plate.
Drake totaled six hits in the contest coming from six different players.
Sam Tourtillott had the lone extra-base knock for the Bulldogs with a double. Meanwhile,
Emma Dighton went 1-for-2 at the plate with a pair of walks.
In the circle, Driscoll tossed 5.0 innings with no earned runs, just one walk, and five strikeouts.
Molly Hoekstra was credited with the loss after 1.1 innings of work with one earned run, two hits, and three strikeouts.
Virginia Tech 8, Drake 0
Once again, the Bulldogs found themselves in a pitching duel. However, this time it was against the No. 17 Hokies.
Similar to Drake's first game of the day, the scoreboard showed zeroes over the first three innings.
Jayme Scheck received the starting nod for Drake while Virginia Tech countered with Sophie Kleiman.
The game broke open in the fourth when the Hokies ended the scoring drought with a six-spot in the frame. Virginia Tech displayed its power plating three runs off extra-base hits, while two runs came from a Bre Peck single. The final run in the inning for the Hokies was scored due to a Drake throwing error.
Virginia Tech tacked on one run in both the fifth and the sixth to reach the final tally of 8-0 as the Bulldogs struggled to get their offense going against Kleiman.
Rita notched two more hits on the day going 2-for-3 against the Hokies, while
Ava Curry also went 2-for-3 at the plate. Scheck suffered her second loss of the season and finished with a final line of 3.2 innings, eight hits, five runs, two walks, and one strikeout.
Drake is back on the diamond for another doubleheader tomorrow as it takes on No. 21 Alabama. The first game against the Tide is slated for 11:00 a.m. with game two set to follow at 1:30 p.m. Both games will be streamed on SEC Network+.
