UNT Softball Loses To FIU
{fshare id=2386}
Miami, Fla. (3/25/12) – Kayla Burri brought home the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning with a sacrifice fly to give FIU a 6-5 victory against the North Texas softball team on Sunday afternoon at the FIU Softball Complex.
The Mean Green falls to 13-17 overall and 4-5 in conference play. FIU improves to 15-14 and 2-1 in the Sun Belt. The Panthers won the conference series, taking two out of the three games.
The Mean Green jumped out to a 4-0 lead, lost it and then tied the game in the top of the seventh, 5-5, with a Brooke Foster solo home run. With a runner on third in the bottom of the eighth, Burri hit a foul fly ball to right field. Darian Blake made the catch, but Erik Acuri beat the throw home to score the winning run.
Foster went 3-for-4 in the game with two home runs and a double. She is the third person this season to hit two homers in a single game. She is tied for third on the team with five home runs.
The Mean Green is 2-7 in extra-inning games this season and has played extra-innings in six of the last 14 games.
North Texas led off the first inning with two home runs, jumping out to a 3-0 lead. With one out, Foster sent her second pitch out of the park for her first homer of the day. After Lisa Johnson walked, Maddelyn Fraley brought her home with a two-run shot to left center. It was her team-leading eighth home run of the season.
Jordan Terry added to the score in the third inning with a pinch-hit RBI single. Fraley scored from third after leading off the inning with a single, giving North Texas a 4-0 advantage.
FIU scored three runs in the third to cut the Mean Green lead to one run, 4-3. Starter Ashley Kirk got into trouble, giving up three walks and two hits. Faced with the bases-loaded, Brittany Simmons forced two grounders and gave up one hit to end the inning. Simmons (9-6) took the loss in the game, allowing three runs off seven hits in 5.1 innings of work.
FIU took the lead in the bottom of the fifth off a bloop single over the Mean Green first baseman’s head. The Panthers scored two runs off three hits.
Foster led off the seventh inning with a solo home run to left center field that tied the game.
FIU outhit the Mean Green, 10-8.
North Texas returns to action on Saturday, March 31 when it faces WKU at home in a three-game conference series.
