ORLANDO – Charleston Southern softball knocked off Notre Dame on Friday morning to begin their time in Florida at UCF's SpaceU Classic. The Bucs took down the Irish by a final score of 5-4 to be the first time they have won over a Power 5 opponent since Virginia in 2022. Later in the day, they played Penn State and after getting out to an early lead, lost 10-3.
GAME ONE
Charleston Southern took
Notre Dame was the first to get on the scoreboard, using an RBI single in the second and an RBI triple in the third. This pushed them out to an early 2-0 lead.
In the fourth, Charleston Southern scratched their first across home plate with
Emily Chandler moving the runners up a base on a groundout that allowed
Jordyn Dimond to score from third.
The Irish pushed their lead back out to two in the bottom half of the frame off a RBI single to place the score at 3-1.
In the fifth, the Bucs picked up right where they left off. Dimond had a single to left field that scored
Cadence Walding and
Maddie Lee who were each in scoring position to tie the game. Later in the inning,
Emma Smith single to center to score Dimond and give them their first lead of the day.
Charlee Yourman then laced a single to centerfield to bring
Carsten Sandvig home and put them ahead at 5-3.
Notre Dame continued to try to pluck away and with an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh, they cut their deficit down to 5-4 and had the tying run on third with two outs. However, they were able to force the Irish's batter into a flyout to left field to end the game.
As a team, Charleston Southern posted nine hits with Smith leading the squad with three. Dimond and Yourman also had multiple as they finished with two. Dimond scored twice and drove in a pair to lead the team in each category as well. Kingsmore and Dimond both stole a pair of bases in the contest to continue their hot start on the basepaths.
Riley Lauffer had the start and threw a complete game, going for all seven innings. In the start, she struck out just one batter and allowed nine hits, four walks and four earned runs, working out of jams in nearly every inning and keeping the Notre Dame hitters at bay.
GAME TWO
Charleston Southern faced another Power 4 opponent later in the day, with it being Penn State. The Nittany Lions entered the matchup receiving votes in the majority of the top polls for college softball.
Penn State scored first with an RBI single up the middle for a 1-0 lead. However, Charleston Southern was able to immediately bounce back tallying three in the bottom of the inning for a 3-1 edge.
Kingsmore and Dimond both reached safely off a single and walk. Smith then drove a ball up the middle to score Kingsmore to tie it at one apiece. Following that, Chandler reached out a fielding error allowing Dimond to score. Yourman then had a single to left, scoring Smith and placing the Bucs up 3-1 early.
The Nittany Lions bounced back by scoring one in the top of the second and then six in the top of the third to regain the lead and not look back. They had another two in the fifth to get the final score to 10-3 at the day's conclusion.
The Bucs had five hits on the day with Kingsmore having two to lead the team.
Gianna Deluco started an threw the first 2.0 frames and was followed by
Brenna Conley who had the final 5.0 of work. Deluco allowed five earned runs while Conley had four charged to her.
UP NEXT
Charleston Southern will return to the facility tomorrow morning to face Ohio. The first pitch is scheduled for 9 a.m. with the game to be available live on ESPN+.
