Temple University Athletics
OWLS SPLIT SOFTBALL DOUBLEHEADER WITH RHODE ISLAND AS 11-GAME WIN STREAK COMES TO AN END
4.20.02 | Softball
But the fourth-place Rams (18-24, 7-7) came up short in the second game 3-1, leaving the bases loaded in the final two innings and stranding a total of 10 runners in the last four frames against righthander Liz Naughton, who won her fifth straight game for second-place Temple (21-21, 10-4).
In the opener, Tindall broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning with her first homer of the year, and Rack hurled a three-hitter with 13 strikeouts, one off her career high, to win a pitcher's duel with Bari Lynn Pflueger.
The Rams added an insurance run later in the sixth on two Temple errors, and it loomed large after the Owls finally got to Rack for a run in the seventh on a two-out RBI single by catcher Alexis Gary. Rack was within one out of tying a school record with her 13th career shutout.
Rack, who went 3 for 3 at the plate, ran her league-leading strikeout total to a school-record 188 in 161 innings.
In the nightcap, Temple built a 3-0 lead on runs in the second, fifth and seventh innings. Pflueger led off the second with a single and scored on shortstop Aida Esquer's two-run double. Katie Mennig ripped a pinch-hit single with two outs in the fifth, and Katie Spencer singled with the bases full in the seventh.
Meanwhile Naughton pitched out of trouble in the fourth, fifth and sixth -- running her string of scoreless innings to 19 -- before Rhode Island nicked her for an unearned run in the seventh on an error and singles by Kristin Havdoglous and Rack. But with the bases loaded and two out, she slammed the door by getting Tindall to ground out.
Havdoglous, Rack and freshman Nicole Haywood were the only Rams with hits in each game. Temple DH Ashley Caudill, who went 2 for 5 on the day, was the only Owl to hit safely in each.
