May 17, 2002

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Eastern Kentucky Colonels came out swinging and defeated the Retrievers of UMBC 6-1 today in the second day of competition in the NCAA Softball Regional Championships at Beckham Field in Columbia today.

Eastern Kentucky (37-13) advances to face top-ranked UCLA tonight at 7:00 p.m. while UMBC (47-21), a day after recording their first NCAA tournament win, was eliminated from competition.
Eastern Kentucky came out hitting hard in the bottom of the first as Elise Burch tripled to right field with one out. Jennifer Norris came up next and grounded out to the shortstop with the Retriever defense holding Burch at third. UMBC pitcher Linsa Moy walked Ashley Totten to put runners on the corners. Amy Herrington was next up for the Colonels and blasted a single to left field, which scored Burch and advanced Totten to second. Bethany Herrington was up next and kept the EKU rally alive as she hit a double to left center, which scored both Amy Herrington and Totten. Megan Mills would ground out to short to end the inning as EKU would get three runs across.

In the bottom of the fifth, EKU’s Megan Mills would reach base on a fielding error by Christy Sheppard at second. EKU would send in Laura Pullin to pinch run for Mills. Kelli Bromley would come up next and single to center field, which advanced Pullin to second. Jen Christiansen would reach on a base on balls, to load the bases. Diana Barreras would fly out to center to give the Colonels two outs. Elise Burch would single to center and score two runs, Bromley and Pullin, and advance Christiansen to third. UMBC would bring in Angie Amedro to finish the game as pitcher and she would get EKU’s Jennifer Norris to pop up to second to end the inning.
UMBC would get on the board in the top of the sixth as Kristie Pickeral sent a shot over the fence in left field for a solo home run. That would be all the offense that UMBC would manage in the game as EKU would go on to win 7-1.

“We all came ready to play,” said EKU third baseman Ashley Totten. “A lot of people don’t know who Eastern is, we had a good season, and we just want to let people know that we are here. We’re looking forward to matching up against UCLA. It’s going to take a total effort to beat them and we’re really pleased with the way we’ve been playing.”