April 6, 2008

Box Score

PITTSBURGH--Junior Samantha Card recorded home run number eight on the year, as Pitt's softball team shutout Providence, 3-0, in the first game of its doubleheader at Trees Field, this afternoon. The Panthers improved to 19-13 on the season and 5-2 in the Big East, while the Friars slipped to 15-15-1 overall and 1-4 in the league.

Card (Miami, Fla./Our Lady of Lourdes/Florida International) gave the Panthers their eventual win with a solo-homer through center field in the fourth inning. With eight on the season, she tied Jacki Haar (2000) for the fourth-best single-season home run mark. Her eight home runs also improve her to fifth on the career homer list, as she has 14 in the last two seasons.

The Panthers would later add another two runs in the sixth off two hits. With two outs and the bases juiced, freshman Mollie Illenberger (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West) pinched hit a short floater over the third baseman for a two-RBI single. Senior Jessica Dignon (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) and Card scored on the play. First, Dignon was hit by a pitch. Then, Card tallied a one-out single and sophomore Megan Livesey (Livingston, N.J./The Montclair Kimberly Academy) was hit by another pitch to load the bases for Illenberger.

Illenberger has a .429 batting average in seven appearances at the plate this season, while Card was 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI in the game.

Pitt stopped the Friars best chance of scoring in the top of the fifth, as Providence left two on base. Following an infield error, Card quickly jumped on a bunt and gunned it to freshman Alicia Broudy (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) at first for an out. Then Livesey fielded a groundball for the second out, after checking the runner at second. Another single placed runners at the corners, when freshman Reba Tutt (Culpeper, Va./Highland) came in for a fly ball to end the inning.

Senior Rebecca Stottlemyer (Charleroi, Pa./Home schooled) also recorded a great defensive play when she ran in for a shallow fly ball in right field to record the final out of the first inning.

Freshman Cory Berliner (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain) improved to 11-6 in her third shutout of the season. In her second three-hitter of the season, she is now tied for third with Laura Berlardinelli (2004) on the single-season wins list.