Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 March 21, 2015 Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score
CONWAY - The Coastal Carolina softball team hit five more home runs, including a walk-off shot by Kelsey Dominik that gave the Chanticleers a 5-4 come from behind win and a doubleheader sweep of Campbell Saturday afternoon. Coastal took the opener 10-5 with Kailey Mellen hitting a pair of longballs.
The Chants came back from a 4-1 deficit in the nightcap as Kiana Quolas tied the game in the bottom of the sixth with a three-run homer. Coastal (15-15, 3-2 BSC) has now hit 16 home runs in its last six games and 45 already this season.
The start time for Sunday's series finale has been moved up to 12 p.m. due to rain in the forecast.
Sara Rasley started the sixth-inning rally with an infield single and Taylor Harris reached on a fielding error with one out. Two batters later, Quolas fouled off several pitches to work a 3-2 count before driving the tying shot over the left-field fence.
Mackenzie Conrad then pitched the Chants out of trouble in the top of the seventh. After a walk, a single and a forceout at third, Conrad came on for Dominik in the circle and induced another forceout and an inning-groundout off the bat of Ericka Nesbitt, the Big South's batting average leader entering the day.
Dominik then hammered a 2-2 pitch from Campbell starter Katie Baker out to right-center with one out in the bottom of the inning for the game-winner. It was her seventh homer of the season and gave Conrad her first victory as a Chanticleer.
Coastal totaled eight hits against Baker, who struck out 14 in the game, with Morgan Noad collecting two.
Coming off the victory in the opener, Bri Chiusano helped give Coastal a 1-0 lead in the first inning. She led off by ripping one to the gap in left-center for the team's first triple of the season. After an infield single to left side by Kory Hayden, Noad dropped a bloop RBI single into left.
Campbell (16-13, 1-4) took the lead in top of the third on a three-run homer by Lia Batchelor. The Camels' No. 9 hitter, Karsen Leonhardt, led off the frame by chopping a single down the left-field and stole second. After an infield single by Stephanie Jones, Hayden threw home for the first out and Dominik induced a groundout to first for the second. Batchelor, though, homered to center on a 1-0 pitch. A home run by Camise Patterson in the fourth made it 4-1 before Coastal mounted the comeback.
In the opener, Mellen hit a pair of two-run homers and Coastal broke a 3-3 tie with five runs in the bottom of the fifth. Mellen provided extra insurance in the sixth with her second longball, giving her a career-high four RBIs.
Campbell took a 1-0 lead in the first as Stephanie Jones led off with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out single by Melissa Tullar.
Coastal came back with three runs in the bottom of the second, hitting back to back home runs for the seventh time in 14 games. After Dominik reached on an error, moved to second on an illegal pitch and was sacrificed to third, Mellen hit one over the centerfield fence and Robinson followed with her fifth homer of the season, to make it 3-1.
Campbell then took advantage of two Coastal fielding errors in the top of the fifth to tie the game, as Tullar hit a two-out, two-run single just front of Chiusano in center.
However, the Chanticleers regained the lead with a five-run bottom of the inning. Leading off, Noad was hit by a pitch and Dominik doubled to left. Two batters later, Mellen walked to load the bases and Harris drew a two-out walk to put CCU back in front. Campbell changed pitchers, but two more walks followed before Hayden hit a two-run double off of the leftfielder's glove to make it 8-3.
After Dominik walked in the sixth, Mellen drove her second longball over the fence in right-center for her fourth of the season and first career multi-home run game.
Nesbitt hit a two-run homer in the top of the seventh before Quolas closed out the complete-game victory.
Quolas (8-9) allowed three earned runs on nine hits and struck out a season-high seven without a walk. She moved into 10th place on the Big South's strikeout list, now with 543. Chiusano joined Mellen with two of the Chants' 10 hits in the game.