(Raleigh, NC) – Chowan pitchers held Shaw to only three hits per game, and the Lady Bears softball team fell in both halves of the doubleheader, 11-1 and 10-2.
In the first game, Chowan's Christie Wright (5-5) took a no-hitter into the fourth, but with one out, Jade Bibb singled to right field, driving in Curtisha Jones, who had reached first on a dropped strike out pitch. The Bears collected two more hits in the fifth, but were unable to score.
Chowan got off to a quick start offensively in the first game, scoring three runs on four hits, none of which made it through the infield. They went down in order in the second, but scored six runs before recording their first out in the third. They added one run in both the fourth and fifth inning to close out the scoring.
On the afternoon, Wright allowed only the one unearned run, striking out 10 in five innings while allowing only three walks – all in the first inning.
For the Lady Bears, Cinnamon Morrow (3-8) allowed 11 runs, eight of them earned, walked four and struck out one.
In the second game, Shaw again gave up three runs in the first, but only one was an earnedrun. The Lady Bears got on the scoreboard in the first when Erica Lafrades (above) walked, stole second, stole third, and made it home when the third baseman mishandled the attempted pickoff.
Shaw added another run in the second, when Lafrades singled and was driven home by a double from pitcher Aerial Sanders. But Chowan pitcher Jessica Farmer (4-4) shut down the Lady Bears bats for the rest of the game, allowing only one base runner with two out in the fifth and final inning.
The Hawks added to their tally with two runs in the fourth, and five in the fifth, triggering the mercy rule and the five-inning shortened game.
Farmer allowed only one earned run while striking out four and walking two. For Shaw, Sanders (0-9) allowed ten runs on nine hits – eight of the runs earned – while striking out two and walking seven.
On Saturday, the Lady Bears travel to Elizabeth City State – the first of three road doubleheaders. They return home Tuesday, March 30 to face cross-town rival Saint Augustine's in a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m. For those games, Shaw will wear pink jerseys as part of an effort to raise awareness of breast cancer. Shaw plays its home games at the Walnut Creek Softball Complex at 1201 Sunnybrook Road in Raleigh.
