HARTSVILLE, S.C. - The Coker College softball team opened play at home on Saturday (Feb. 9) with a pair of dramatic 2-1 wins over Erskine College, with game two needing eight innings to determine a winner. With the sweep the Cobras move to 4-0 on the season.
Both games featured excellent desplays of pitching and Taylor Forehand started game one for the Cobras and tossed four innings of two-hit ball, while giving up one run and striking out four batters. Christine Carver picked up the win as she entered in relief of Forehand in the fifth inning and pitched three near-perfect innings out of the bullpen, striking out three batters and only allowing one hit. It took Coker until the sixth innning to get something going as Katelyn Chambers led off the inning with a single before making her way to second on a Lilli Otten groundout. With two outs and Chambers on second, Hannah Goodman stepped up and laced a single through the left side to make it a tie ballgame. In the seventh inning, Ashley Meckley showed the wheels by legging out a leadoff bunt single and Madison King knocked a double into right field to put runners on second and third with no outs. With one out in the inning, Lauren DeWitt came on the pinch hit and walked it off for the Cobras with an RBI groundout to secure the win.
King led the team in hits with two, while Chambers, Meckley, Goodman, and Allyson High each recorded one hit in game one.
Isabelle Mullen got the nod in game two, and much like her first two appearences as a Cobra, the freshman put on a spectacular performance. Neither team could cross the plate over the first seven innings as the game headed for extra innings with both teams scoreless. Erskine struck first in the top of the eighth to take the first lead of the game. With King on second Anna Gluhosky drilled an RBI triple to right center and tie the game at one. With Gluhosky on third and no outs Otten stepped off the bench to pinch hit and lined a base hit up the middle for the second walk-off win of the day for Coker.
Mullen earned the win after tossing eight innings and striking out seven while giving up just one unearned run. Gluhosky and Mindy North led the Cobras with two hits in game two and Chambers, Otten, and Makayla Shore each recorded one hit.
Coker will be back in action at home on Sunday (Feb. 10) when they take on USC Aiken in a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 PM.