Offense Erupts as Softball Splits Two at Camel Stampede Tournament

Saturday, March 17

Buies Creek, N.C.

11:00 a.m.

Drexel University

N.C. Central

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Offense Erupts as Softball Splits Two at Camel Stampede Tournament

3/17/2012 3:18:00 PM | Softball

BOX SCORE vs. NC CENTRAL
BOX SCORE vs. CAMPBELL

BUIES CREEK, N.C. - The Drexel softball team split a doubleheader at the Hampton Inn Camel Stampede Tournament on Saturday, defeating NC Central 20-1 before falling to Campbell, 6-1. Paige Collings tied a team record, a record she had already tied twice in her career, with two home runs including a grand slam in the demolition of NC Central in the first game of the day. Hillary Allen gave up just one run on three hits in five innings, improving her record to 5-5 with the win. Shelby Taylor took the loss in Game Two.

Five Dragons, including Collings, Hanna Parrish, Devon Metcalf, Jenn Reading and Comfort Ahonkhai had at least two hits. Drexel finished with 18 hits, as Parrish and Collings drove in four runs each and Ahonkhai brought home three.

The 20 runs scored marked the highest total for a Drexel team in head coach Kim Camara's six years at the helm.

The game actually began with an early lead for the Eagles, and NC Central capitalized on a walk and hit-by-pitch in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. That would not last long, as the Dragon offense broke out for nine runs, its biggest inning of the season, in the second.

The frame started innocently enough, with Jenn Reading popping out to lead off. Paige Collings then drew a walk out of the fifth hole, just the second time all year she found herself somewhere other than third in the order. The change did not seem to slow her down in the slightest, as the walk was just the beginning of her monster game.

Maddison Timoteo rolled a grounder through the right side for a one-out single, moving Collings to second. After Caprice DeMirjian reached on a fielder's choice that erased Timoteo, it appeared that the Eagles would be able to escape with little or no damage. But little did they know that DeMirjian was the third of ten-straight Dragons to reach base.

Sylvia Llamas walked, and Comfort Ahonkhai singled back up the middle to score Collings and DeMirjian. Hanna Parrish doubled home Llamas, Devon Metcalf scorched a double to left that plated Ahonkhai, and Hillary Allen reached on an error that brought in Parrish. Reading walked to load the bases, and Collings then delivered the biggest blow, a grand slam home run to left field that broke the game wide open and gave Drexel a 9-1 lead.

DeMirjian walked and scored on a single by Metcalf in the third inning to make it 10-1. Then, just two innings after setting a season-high for runs in an inning, the Dragons did it again. Nine more runs in the fourth eliminated any lingering doubts as to the game's outcome.

Reading and Collings singled to get the fourth underway. DeMirjian also poked a single to center, sandwiched between a strikeout and pop out that once again gave NC Central an opportunity to get out of the inning without any damage done. Instead, Ahonkhai was hit by a pitch to score Reading. Parrish then roped a drive to the wall in left-center, clearing the bases as she pulled into third with a triple. A Metcalf single up the middle scored Parrish, and Allen then crushed a long home run to the power alley in left. Reading doubled, her second hit of the inning, and Collings then connected for her second home run of the day to deep left field, giving the Dragons a whopping 19-1 lead.

Metcalf drove in pinch hitter Maggy Fermo, who had beat out an infield single, with the 20th run in the top of the fifth.

The second game saw no such offensive outbursts. A pitchers duel saw Shelby Taylor help the Dragons stay tied through three innings before Campbell got the game's first run in the fourth inning, a solo home run by Stephanie Jones. Drexel answered with a run in the top of the sixth when Collings drove home Metcalf with a single to right, but the Camels scored five times in the bottom of the sixth to prevent a clean sweep by the Dragons at the event.

Collings is now two home runs and 10 runs batted in behind Drexel program records held by former teammate Ashley Botelho. She has 23 career round-trippers and 98 lifetime runs batted in. Collings was named the Co-Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament with Erika Nesbitt of Campbell for her performance over the weekend. Comfort Ahonkhai, Devon Metcalf and Hanna Parrish were also named to the All-Tournament Team.

Drexel will now enjoy a week off before opening CAA play next Saturday. The Dragons host James Madison for a three-game series beginning Saturday with a single game at 4:00 p.m. They will also play a doubleheader against the Dukes on Sunday beginning at 11:00 a.m.