April 26, 2003

Oxford, Miss. – The South Carolina Gamecock softball team took advantage of sloppy defense and recorded six runs on 13 hits as they defeated the Ole Miss Rebels 6-2 in game one of Saturday’s doubleheader. Amber Curtis went 3-for-5 with an RBI while Danielle Quinones went 2-for-4, including her sixth home run of the season, scored a run and had two RBI’s. Carolina improved to 35-14 and 17-9 in the SEC while the Rebels fell to 17-31 and 6-19 in the SEC. Stacey Johnson (16-7) earned the win for USC and Dana Brill (3-11) took the loss. The Rebels recorded a season high six errors in the loss.

Meghan Cornett led off the second inning with a double to left centerfield and after advancing to third on a groundout by Melissa Sandel, Cornett scored on an Ole Miss error to put USC up 1-0. Carolina was unsuccessful in the third inning when they had the bases loaded but failed to bring home any runs.

Carolina added another run in the fourth when Nancy Crane, who reached base on an Ole Miss error, scored on an RBI single by Amber Curtis and put USC up 2-0.

In the fifth, Ole Miss brought in Lindsay Price to relieve Brill in hopes to contain USC. Carolina bats came alive against Price as Carolina recorded four straight hits. Troesh led off with a double to left field and scored when Quinones hit her sixth home run of the season, giving USC a 4-0 lead. The Gamecocks continued to score as Smith doubled and her pinch runner, Samantha Jennings, eventually scored on an RBI double by Cornett to put USC up 5-0.

Sandel scored on an RBI single by Crane to provide the Gamecocks a 6-0 lead in the seventh. Ole Miss prevented a shutout in the bottom half as DeDe Justice hit a solo shot to centerfield off of reliever Aleca Johnson. The Rebels got their second run of the inning when Rebecca McIntire also hit a solo home run off of Johnson. Johnson struggled to retire the Rebels for the inning as she gave up four hits. With two outs and runners at first and second for Ole Miss, Carolina then brought in Henkes to close out the game. Henkes (2) entered the game with a 6-2 lead and struck out pinch hitter Stacy McCommon for the final out and her second save of the season.