By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Evansville tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, but the Tennessee Tech softball team was able to take advantage of four Purple Ace errors – including three in the top of the eighth – to claim a 7-4 victory to wrap up play at the Furman Paladin Invitational on Sunday.
The Golden Eagles head back to Cookeville with a 3-2 record before hitting the road again next weekend for the Army tournament in Columbus, Ga.
Lainey Fitzgerald collected the win in relief as she completed final two-thirds of the seventh, yielding one hit and getting the Golden Eagles out of a bases-loaded jam. Fitzgerald allowed one hit, while walking three and striking out one. Addison Abell earned the save with a scoreless eighth inning with one hit and one strikeout.
Payton Wagner had a solid start and threw five scoreless innings after allowing two runs in the first, then was charged with the runs in the seventh. She finished the game throwing 6 1/3 innings with four runs allowed on five hits, four walks and four strikeouts.
Tech scored the first run of the game as Abby Shoulders drew a four-pitch walk, then advanced to second on Alina Schlageter's bunt, third on Sydney Kirby's grounder to short, and finally home on a passed ball during Jailynn Paderez's at-bat.
Evansville pulled ahead with a two-run triple in the bottom of the inning, but did not score again until the seventh inning.
The Golden Eagles tied the game in the second as an error at first on Makayli Harris' sacrifice bunt gave Bailee Stack enough room to cross the plate. Tech then took the lead in the fourth as Sydney Kirby hit a sacrifice fly to left field to bring in Harris.
In the seventh inning, the Golden Eagles extended their lead to 4-2 as Paderez and Abbee Klinefelter hit back-to-back doubles to plate the run. However, a sequence of a walk, back-to-back singles, then two more walks pushed two Evansville runs across to knot the affair up and send the game to extra innings.
Tech scored three runs in the top of the eighth inning. Shoulders reached on an error at third, then Schlageter had a bunt single to third. Kirby roped a single up the middle to put runners at first and second as Shoulders crossed the plate.
Paderez grounded the ball to short, but it was misplayed trying to make the play at second, loading the bases with Schlageter at third, Kirby at second and Paderez reaching on the unsuccessful fielder's choice Klinefelter hit the ball to short and it resulted in another error, allowing Schlageter and pinch-runner Bella Ochoa to score.
The defense held in the bottom of the eighth as a leadoff walk was erased at second on a fielder's choice, then Abell coaxed a fly out to center field. A wild pitch allowed the runner to take second, then a single back to the circle put runners at the corners. Abell then got the final out swinging to end the contest and send Tech home on a winning note.
Klinefelter ended the day with three hits and an RBI, while Paderez went 2-for-4 at the plate. Kirby collected two RBI on a 1-for-4 day, while Shoulders, Schlageter, Ella Bishop, Fitzgerald and Harris all collected base hits.
