Tulsa Wins Eighth in a Row, Defeats USF 7-3

Saturday, March 25

Tampa, Fla.

3 pm

Tulsa

22-10, 2-0

USF

20-17, 0-2

Tulsa

USF

Tulsa Wins Eighth in a Row, Defeats USF 7-3

3/25/2017 4:53:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Riley Ubben

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TAMPA, Fla. - The University of Tulsa Softball team won their eighth consecutive game on Saturday afternoon as they rallied from down a run early to defeat USF 7-3 in game two of the three-game series. The victory clinched the first series win for the Hurricane (22-10 Overall, 2-0 The American) over USF (20-17 Overall, 0-2 The American) since Tulsa joined the conference in 2015.

The Hurricane offense responded to being down a run early by posting 11 hits in the contest to give them their 11^th multi-hit performance of the season. Seven different Tulsa hitters posted a base-hit for the fourth straight game while Maggie Withee led the way with three hits.

After giving up a run in the opening frame, Emily Watson came back and retired eight straight USF batters while holding the Bulls without a hit until two outs in the fifth inning. Watson struck out 12 hitters on the afternoon for her eighth double-digit strikeout performance and third in her last three starts as she moved to 16-3. The junior picked up a new career-high for strikeouts in a season in the bottom of the third inning, picking up number 174 to give her the seventh most strikeouts in a season by a TU pitcher with 181.

Tori Stafford opened up Tulsa's scoring in the top of the fourth inning with a two-out home run, her third of the year, to tie it up at 1-1 before the Hurricane took advantage of USF miscues to plate three more in the frame.

Mikayla Whitten's second hit of the afternoon drove in Shelby Estocado, who reached on a walk after fouling off six straight pitches to keep the inning alive before Shannon Hughes singled to put two on. Hughes scored on the throw during Whitten's at-bat before the freshman came around to score to put Tulsa up 4-1. Whitten extended her hitting streak to five games, recording nine during the span with three mutli-hit performances.

The Hurricane followed in the next inning by scoring three more runs to go ahead 7-1 after Maggie Withee opening the frame with her second hit of the day to give her multi-hit games in three of the last four contests before Morgan Neal followed with a base-hit of her own.

Maddie Withee moved two into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt before two TU runs crossed on a USF error. Hughes secured a multi-hit day the following at-bat, sending a RBI single to left field for the third and final score of the inning.

USF cut the Tulsa lead down to four at 7-3 on a Kassandra Moeller two-run home run after Watson held the Bulls without a hit after the RBI single in the first until two outs in the fifth.

Tulsa will go for the series sweep over USF tomorrow in game three with first pitch scheduled for 10:30 a.m.