Box Score Game 1        Box Score Game 2
Hattiesburg, MS-The Belhaven softball team traveled to 7^th ranked William Carey University on Thursday night and lost both games of a Gulf Coast Athletic Conference doubleheader to the Lady Crusaders 2-0 in game one and 2-0 in game two. The Lady Blazers are now 25-13 overall and fall to 1-5 in the GCAC. William Carey moves to a 29-4 overall record and a perfect conference mark of 4-0 with the victories.

 

Runs were at a premium in game one of the day and unfortunately for the Lady Blazers, William Carey plated the only two tallies of the contest. Neither team scored in the first three innings although both teams had some opportunities. Belhaven loaded the bases in the top of the second thanks to a couple of William Carey errors and a walk to Chelsea Randle. However, Kelsey Jo Smith got Kayla Maldonado to ground into a 6-5 fielder's choice to end the threat.

 

The Lady Crusaders got base hits from Kelli Blue and Tan Montgomery to begin the bottom of the third but ended up stranding them at second and third base. Salina Cervantes was able to work out of trouble by getting Jill Wedgeworth to fly out to left to close out the inning.

 

William Carey cracked the scoreboard for the first time in the fourth inning on a pair of hits off Cervantes. Jeana Erickson singled to right center, stole second base, and scored on a two out base hit by Pam Martin. The other Lady Crusader run crossed the plate in the bottom of the fifth when Montgomery singled to begin the inning, moved to third on a pair of sacrifice bunts, and came in on a misplayed ground ball by Tiffany Ansley.

 

The Lady Blazers got a couple of hits in the sixth inning, but could not push any runs across against Smith who went on to close out the inning and the game with a shutout victory. Smith surrendered a total of four hits while striking out six Lady Blazer hitters.

 

Cervantes pitched well in the loss working all six innings allowing seven hits and two runs with only one of those being earned. Cervantes record falls to 11-5 on the season with the setback. Cervantes had two of the four Belhaven hits while Ansley picked up the other two base hits for the Lady Blazers. Montgomery had a pair of singles for the Lady Crusaders to lead their offense.

 

The second game of the night started much like the first in that neither team could get on the board through the first three innings of play. Salina Cervantes also started the second game for the Lady Blazers and once again pitched well. The Lady Crusaders finally got to Cervantes and the Belhaven defense in the fourth inning when Erickson reached third on a dropped fly ball by Kayla Maldonado. She then scored on an RBI groundout by Shana Gunter and William Carey jumped ahead 1-0.

 

The Lady Blazers had a couple of chances to score in the second inning when they collected a pair of hits and in the fourth when they had three hits but couldn't bring a run home. In the fourth, Heather Pace tried to score from second base on a hit by Cervantes and good throw by the left fielder Nikki Sanders cut down Pace at the plate to prevent the run.

 

Belhaven would not threaten again for the rest of the game as William Carey pitchers Melanie Bush and Brittany Fuller shutdown the Lady Blazers over the final three innings. The Lady Crusaders added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single by Gunter to make the final score 2-0.

 

Cervantes took the loss pitching six innings allowing two runs, one of which was earned, on six hits with two strikeouts. Cervantes is now 11-6 in 2009. Bush got the win for the Lady Crusaders by firing the first five innings giving up just five hits. Ansley had two hits for Belhaven followed by Cervantes and Clarissa Williams with a base hit each. Erickson had a pair of hits for William Carey and Gunter added a hit and had both Lady Crusader RBI's.