Emory Softball Takes Two From Berry

Emory junior left fielder Jessica Thomas collected three hits, drove in four runs and scored three times in sparking the No. 2-ranked Eagles’ softball team to a 10-6 victory second-game win over Berry and a sweep of a road doubleheader.  Emory captured the opening game of the twinbill, 5-4 in eight innings.  The two triumphs raised Emory’s win streak to seven games and boosted its overall record to 34-2-1 while the Vikings slipped to 19-13.

The Eagles pounded out 14 hits in the second game with five players registering two or more safeties.  Junior Jessica Boni rapped out a pair of hits and totaled two RBIs while Claire Bailey, Sophia Tarte, and Megan Light were the other Emory players to hit safely twice.   Emory jumped out to a 3-0 advantage in its half of the first inning by pushing across all its runs after the first two batters were retired.  After Tarte and Light singled, a double by Thomas scored Tarte.  Boni then followed with a two-run double. The Eagles extended their lead to 5-1 in the third thanks to a two-run homer by Thomas, her team-leading ninth of the year.   After a pair of Vikings’ runs in the bottom of the fifth narrowed the Eagles’ lead to 5-4,  Emory blew the game wide open with a four-run sixth inning.  Light, Thomas, and sophomore Dana Goodenough all came through with RBI singles in the frame while senior Brittany Boeshore accounted for the other ribbie.  Junior pitcher Jaclyn Jacobi picked up her third win of the year in as many decisions, hurling 2 2/3 innings of relief, giving up four hits and a pair of unearned runs.

In the opener, an eighth-inning single by Zara Louy scored Thomas, snapping a 4-4 tie and giving Emory the win.  The Eagles picked up 13 hits in the contest, including a double and triple by Light, while Berry finished with seven base hits.  Emory tallied the game’s first run when a two-out three bagger by Light scored Tarte.  The Eagles crossed the plate twice more the following frame with Catherine Norman and Louy driving in those runs.  Berry battled back to tie the game in its half of the fifth on the strength of a three-run double by Lacey Herring.  Emory broke the deadlock in the seventh with a run, only to see the Vikings force extra innings on another RBI double by Herring.  Freshman Lena Brottman tossed a complete game in the circle for the Eagles, upping her season mark to 14-1 after giving up seven hits while fanning seven.

Emory returns to action on Thursday when it plays at doubleheader at Piedmont College.