Softball Grabs First Win as Part of Split at Spartan Classic

Monday, February 25

Greensboro, N.C.

11:00 a.m.

Drexel University

1-4

Marshall

5-9

Drexel

Marshall

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Softball Grabs First Win as Part of Split at Spartan Classic

2/25/2013 8:10:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The Drexel softball team got its first win under first-year head coach Miranda Ervin on Monday as they opened the final day of the Spartan Classic with a 4-3 win over Marshall. Sylvia Llamas went 2-for-4 with a two-run double and scored the eventual game-winning run. Shelby Taylor, one of five Dragon pitchers used in the contest, got the win. Tara Konopka got the save.

Drexel (1-5) followed that game up by taking the host UNC Greensboro Spartans to extra innings before a big eighth inning secured a 9-4 win for UNCG. The Spartans improved to 11-2 with the win. Konopka went the distance in the loss, allowing just four earned runs and two through the first seven innings.

Shyann Beach started the first game for Drexel, her first appearance in the circle this season. Beach, a senior, allowed two hits over her two innings of work, striking out two and keeping the Thundering Herd off the scoreboard.

In the top of the third, the Dragons got on the board for the first time in Greensboro. Maggy Fermo laced a one-out single into left-center field, moving up to second when Llamas knocked a single to left. A wild pitch allowed Fermo to scamper over to third, and with two away, Comfort Ahonkhai came through by beating out an infield single towards second base. Fermo crossed the plate with Drexel's first run.

On came Taylor, who scattered three hits and gave up a run in the fourth inning during her two frames of work. She also struck out three, the most of Drexel's five hurlers in the game.

In the top of the fifth, the Dragons got the big inning they had been looking for all weekend. Hanna Parrish got it started with an infield single towards the hole between first and second, and was able to move up to second when Marshall first baseman Alysia Hively threw the ball away trying in vain to get Parrish at first. Fermo followed with an infield hit of her own, this one back up the middle allowing Parrish to move up to third. Fermo, too, was able to take advantage of an ill-advised throw to move up to second base.

With two runners in scoring position and no one out, Llamas took advantage. She roped a double to right-center field, the Dragons' first extra base hit of the tournament. Parrish and Fermo scored. The Dragons were able to load the bases with two outs thanks to a walk issued to Ahonkhai and Karli Boyer getting hit by a pitch. Up stepped Ellen Scott, who drove a base hit into right field, plating Llamas with the Dragons' fourth run.

That would prove critical as Katalin Lucas' two-run home run in the bottom of the inning pulled Marshall back within a run. Jess O'Hara was brought on to finish off the inning, though, and Konopka allowed just one hit over the final two innings as she slammed the door on the Thundering Herd to lock down Drexel's first win.

In their second game of the day, the Dragons fell behind 4-0 to UNC Greensboro early due in large part to two fielding errors, but clawed their way back into the game. Again, Llamas was in the middle of the action. In the fourth, she got things started with her second double of the day, this one just inside the foul line in right field with one out. After Jenn Reading walked and was pinch-run for by Lara Horwitz, O'Hara beat out an infield hit to load the bases. Comfort Ahonkhai then hit a chopper back towards the mound. The Dragons took off on contact, and Ahonkhai beat the throw as everyone was safe. After a strikeout, Maddison Timoteo stepped to the plate with two outs and roped a line drive single back up the middle, bringing Horwitz home.

In the fifth, Parrish led off with a single, but was erased when Fermo hit into a fielder's choice. After Llamas and Reading walked to load the bases, O'Hara again beat out an infield single to the left side, bringing Fermo home. Ahonkhai then reached on a fielder's choice that erased Reading from the basepaths, but brought Llamas to the plate with the tying run.

The score stayed knotted at four through seven innings. Konopka, making her third start of the year, allowed six hits and struck out three through the first seven, but was done in by an RBI triple off the bat of Heather Robb and two Drexel errors that cost the team two additional runs.

Drexel will have just one day off before returning to the diamond on Wednesday at George Washington for a doubleheader, their first non-tournament games of the young season. First pitch in D.C. is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.