Bullock goes 3-for-3 against UMES

GREENSBORO, MARCH 1, 2008 – After a rough day to open the 2008 North Carolina A&T Fastpitch Invitational, the North Carolina A&T softball team recovered and won two games at the Invitational on Saturday with a 12-0 win over Maryland-Eastern Shore in five innings and a 6-2 win over Winston-Salem State Rams.

Lillian Bullock went 3-for-3 with three runs scored and two RBIs, including a double a triple against Maryland-Eastern Shore.  Against Winston-Salem State, Jessie Larson went 1-for-3 with two RBIs and Ryanne Hill hit her second home run of the season as the Aggies improved to 7-2 on the season.

Freshman pitcher Jennifer Luper improved to 4-0 with the Aggies win over Winston-Salem State. She went seven innings, struck out seven, gave up four hits and surrendered just one earned run.

Despite her strong performance, the Rams were able to tie the game at 1 in the second. The Aggies gave Luper the lead for good in the third, however. Rams starter Desiree Ramirez started the inning off by walking Channing Statham. Yahamma White followed with a bunt single down the third base line to put two runners on.

The runners advanced into scoring position on a Ramirez wild pitch. After an Aggies strike out, Larson stepped to play and scored Statham on a sacrifice fly to left. Tangala Conover gave the Aggies a 3-1 lead on RBI double that scored White. Hill led the fourth off by giving Luper more of a cushion with a home run to right-center. On the young season, she is hitting .304 with 10 RBIs and .609 slugging percentage.

The Rams scored another run in the fourth to close the Aggies lead to 4-2. Luper would shut the Rams down from there. She only allowed three more Ram base runners the rest of the way and two of those runners reached on errors. Luper improved her ERA to 2.80 on the season and she has walked just seven batters over 30 innings pitched.

Against UMES, the Aggies jumped out to a 7-0 lead thanks to two Hawk errors. The first error of the inning led to White scoring and Chaola Simmons reaching base. Conover kept things going with a RBI double to center field that scored Simmons. Bullock followed with a two-run RBI that scored Larson and Conover for an early four-run lead. Bullock advanced to third on a stolen base and Brittney Reddick walked to put two runners on. Antoinette Torres scored Bullock on a sacrifice fly, and Britney Hodges reached on walk. The rally closed out with another Hawks error. White scored Reddick and Hodges thanks to a Hawks error in right field to give the Aggies a 7-0 advantage.  

Zapora Gaston and Sasha Philpot combined to shut out the Hawks. Gaston earned her first career win as an Aggie. The Aggies will play for the championship of the Invitational Sunday at noon against Mississippi Valley State. MVSU defeated the Aggies on Friday 9-1 to open the Invitational.