Gaston earns the save

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BOILING SPRINGS, N.C., February 20, 2008  – North Carolina A&T softball coach Mamie Jones made an effort to add more depth to her pitching staff and the effort paid off on Wednesday. The Aggies held off a Gardner-Webb rally in the second game of a doubleheader at Varsity Field to earn an 8-7 win. The Aggies lost the first game 1-0.

The Aggies are 5-1 on the season, and the Bulldogs record went to 4-3 after the split. Freshman pitcher Jennifer Luper earned the win in the second game and improved to 3-0 on the season. The Aggies used reliever Zapora Gaston to hold off the Bulldogs in the second game to earn the save. The Aggies recorded just one save last season.

Offensively, the Aggies were led by freshman Ryanne Hill in the second contests as she went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Hill’s infield RBI single scored Chaola Simmons from third to give the Aggies a 6-3 lead in the top of the sixth. Lillian Bullock followed with a two-run RBI triple to give the Aggies an 8-3 cushion.

But the Bulldogs rallied in the sixth. Angie Walls capped off a four-run sixth inning with a two-run RBI triple to move the Bulldogs to within one. Gaston made her first appearance of the season when she entered the game in the seventh. Gaston started her Aggies career by striking out Jessi Williams. Mandy Ward made the second out by lining out to third.

Christa Fullwood put the winning run on first with a single, but Gaston ended the game by getting Adrienne Smith to ground out to third.   Gardner-Webb’s Christine Murray earned the loss. Channing Statham added two hits and two RBIs for the Aggies, while Yahamma White also had two hits.

In the first game, senior Taryn Beck tossed her second complete game of the year and earned her first victory of the season. Sophomore Sasha Philpot was tough-luck loser as her record dropped to 2-1 on the season. Philpot went six innings, struck out three, walked three, gave up just four hits and did not surrender an earned run.

In the GWU half of the second, Angie Walls reached on an error and moved to second on Lindsay Cox’s sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Kelly Linsley came up with a single to right field, scoring Walls. On an error, Linsley moved to second base, but GWU was unable to plate any more runs in the inning. The one run, as it turned out, proved to be enough as Beck was dominant. The Aggies never advanced past second base and only twice did an Aggies runner reach second.

The Aggies return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Durham to face N.C. Central at 1 p.m.