Collings Leads Dragons to Series Victory Over UNC Wilmington

Sunday, April 11

Drexel Field

11:00 a.m.

Drexel University

UNC Wilmington

Collings went 3-for-3 with a home run in the series finale.

Collings Leads Dragons to Series Victory Over UNC Wilmington

4/11/2010 1:08:29 PM | Softball

Box Score

Philadelphia – Drexel (12-14, 3-6) closed out its first conference series win of the season with a 2-1 victory over UNC Wilmington (7-28, 1-7) in Sunday's rubber game. Paige Collings went 3-for-3, drove in both of Drexel's runs and hit her third home run of the season. Hillary Allen got the pitching win after allowing one run on five hits and striking out five to give her team its fourth win in the last five games.

Ashley Botelho went 2-for-3 with a double and her classmate Katrina Gaudier threw the ninth inning to earn her first career save.

Samme Lisowsky took the loss for UNC Wilmington after letting in one earned run on five hits in four innings and striking out three. Amanda Davenport allowed one run on three hits and a walk in two innings of relief and struck out three Dragons.

Collings continued her hot hitting in the series finale. She drove home Hanna Parrish from third in the second inning to give Drexel an early 1-0 lead. The Dragons went on to load the bases with an Ashley Botelho double and a walk by Devon Metcalf, but UNCW escaped with an inning-ending groundout by Katy Harrington.

The Dragons let a golden opportunity slip away in the bottom of the third when Kelly Downes led off with a double to right center and Collings followed with a single up the middle. But with runners on first and third and no outs Drexel's four, five and six hitters failed to push a run across the plate. Botelho grounded out to third base, Jenn Reading popped up to third base and Devon Metcalf grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.

Allen cruise through the first three innings, retiring the first nine batters she faced before Morgan Walters pulled a single into left field for UNCW's first hit of the game. Undeterred, Allen wiffed the next batter Kelcey Eddinger by pulling the string on a two-strike change-up. After letting up a single to Katie Houmard to load the bases she got Lauryn Buckworth to pop out to shortstop to end the inning.

Collings gave the Dragons an insurance run in the fifth inning when she took an inside pitch by reliever Amanda Davenport over the left field fence for her third homer of the season and third hit of the game. The long fly gave Drexel a 2-0 lead.

In the UNCW sixth inning Morgan Walters and Kelcey Eddinger started things off with back-to-back singles and moved to second and third on a ground out by Houmard. Allen fluttered a 2-2 changeup around the bat of Buckworth for the second out. Stacy Pinno punched a single into left field to score one run but the accurate arm of Amanda Bachmann in left field threw out Eddinger who was trying to score from second base on the hit. The exceptional defensive play kept Drexel on top 2-1.

Drexel brought in Katrina Gaudier to pitch the seventh inning. After Michelle Harrison grounded out to lead off the inning, Laura Sykes reached on a fielding error by Botelho at third base, but Gaudier picked her up by striking out Ashley Shingleton looking for the second out. Pinch hitter Brittany Pierce rolled a single into right field, but Gaudier made a shoe-string catch on a pop up by Walters to end the game.

The Dragons will be back in action on Wednesday, April 14 when they host city rival Saint Joseph's in a 3:00 p.m. contest.