Freshman earns win, has game-winning hit
The USC softball team salvaged its weekend series with Kentucky thanks to a 4-3 extra inning win Sunday at Beckham Field.
After falling to the Wildcats 5-3 and 3-2 in both ends of Saturday's doubleheader, the Gamecocks were able to close the series with an eighth inning win, their first in four extra inning games this season.
USC was led at both the plate and in the circle by star freshman Julie Sarratt. Sarratt (8-7) earned the win, going all eight innings and allowing three runs on eight hits. The Gaffney native also had a direct hand in giving herself and her team the victory — it was Sarratt's two-out walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the eighth that ended the game.
Sarratt's counterpart, freshman Lauren Cumbess, was the hard-luck loser. Cumbess also threw all eight innings, falling to 6-2 with the decision.
After getting off to a quick start in the first inning with a Samie Garcia double for a run, an fourth-inning Evan Childs home run put the Gamecocks up 3-2. For a while, that looked like it would be enough for USC to hold on.
However, UK's Samantha DeMartine had other plans. DeMartine, who became just the fifth player in Kentucky history to hit two home runs in one game in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, once again came up with a clutch home run, tying the game at 3 in the sixth inning.
From there, instead of the Gamecocks blowing a late advantage to UK, as had happened in the first two games, it was the Wildcats giving away the win two innings later on Sarratt's hit.
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