Newton Three-Run Homer, Extra Inning Wild Pitch Gives UVA-Wise Softball Sweep

March 28, 2007
Game 1 Boxscore

Game 2 Boxscore

Wise, VA – Shelley Newton’s fifth inning three-run home run in the opener and a wild pitch with the bases loaded in the eighth frame of the late game gave UVA-Wise the Appalachian Athletic Conference softball sweep of Union College, 5-3 and 4-3.

The Lady Cavs remained perfect atop the league standings at 4-0 and moved over the .500 mark to 14-13 on the year. The Lady Bulldogs saw their AAC mark even to 2-2 while falling to 20-14.

Senior Alicia King (Castlewood, VA) had her best day of the year with four hits, two in each game, including a solo homer for an insurance run in the sixth of the first game. Britney Lawson (Duffield, VA) led off the opener with a solo round-tripper, her seventh, to right center field and finish with three hits, two runs, three stolen bases and three walks. Newton (Chesapeake, VA) connected for the three-run game-winning home run for her long hit of the day.

Tori Flint (Charlottesville, VA) added three hits of her own and two runs. The senior also logged the final 2.2 innings of the first game allowing only three hits and fanning three for the victory.

Hannah Ellis (Keokee, VA) lined a double while Amber Quillen (Kingsport, TN) and Bobbi Mihelarakis (Sterling, VA) had two singles. Sarah Frazier (Big Stone Gap, VA) had the last hit for UVA-Wise. Amanda Wheeler Sims (Jonesborough, TN) went all eight innings in the late contest where she gave up 10 hits, no earned runs and struck out three.

In the first affair, Lawson led off the bottom of the first with a deep homer to right centerfield. Union took advantage of a UVA-Wise error to tie it in the second before adding single tallies in the fourth and fifth with the last a Kaila McSpedon home run to make it 3-1.

In the home fifth, Amber Harvey (Millboro, VA) walked and Lawson walked to put two on with one out. Frazier sacrificed them ahead one base before Newton belted a long home run, her fourth, to right center for a 4-3 advantage. King added a solo shot in the sixth for what would be the final of 5-3.

The Lady Bulldogs scored two unearned runs in the top of the second of game two. Frazier ground out to plate Mihelarakis to cut the score to 2-1 in the third for the home team. Ellis tied the game, 2-2, for UVA-Wise with a pinch hit double to right center to score Flint, who led off with a single.

The contest went to the international extra inning rule in the eighth. Union scored once on a Suzannah Behnken single through the right side to make it 3-2. Starting on second, Flint moved to third on a Quillen sacrifice. She then scored on a fielder’s choice off Christine Cantone’s (Va. Beach, VA) grounder to second and beat the throw home to tie the game, 3-3. King and Mihelarakis lined back-to-back singles to load the bases before Cantone scampered home on a passed ball on the next batter for the 4-3 win.

UVA-Wise will have a day off before battling Virginia Intermont in a makeup doubleheader in Bristol, VA on Friday starting at 4:00 p.m.