GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Gardner-Webb University softball team (14-9) finished off a fourth straight win to end Friday at the Furman Round Robin, defeating the hosts 7-2 and Youngstown State 9-1 to close out a doubleheader sweep

Game One - Gardner-Webb 9, Youngstown State 1
In the early game, Gardner-Webb easily handled Youngstown State, scoring in four of the seven innings in a 9-1 win. Nine runs was also more than enough to support freshman pitcher Hannah Frye, who picked up her seventh win of the season behind a complete 7.0 innings while allowing just one run and striking out three.

Gardner-Webb got the scoring started in the second inning, when junior Emily Garcia singled through the left side to push home the first run of the game. The Runnin' Bulldogs made it 3-0 not long after, when graduate student Araceli Pesqueira homered down the line in right for her fifth long-ball of the season in the third inning.

Garcia was back to the plate in the fourth, finding the gap in right center to score two more runs and give the 'Dawgs a commanding 6-0 advantage. Despite YSU clawing one back in the sixth, Gardner-Webb put the game away with a three run seventh inning, highlighted by an Ella Christopher solo home run a two-RBI single off the bat of junior Maura Pendleton.

Sophomore Carmen McRae drove one last run across in a big seventh inning, pushing across a sac fly for the 9-1 lead that eventually held up as final.

Game Two - Gardner-Webb 7, Furman 2
The bats stayed hot in the late game, as the Runnin' Bulldogs scored a road win behind seven runs and 13 total hits

Freshman Raigan Kelley continued a solid individual weekend at the plate in the second inning, driving home Pesqueira on a ball towards the gap in right center. Kelley eventually came around to score herself in the inning, a Gardner-Webb jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Kelley was again at the center of the action in the third, reaching on an error and doing just enough to again score Pesqueira, this time for a 4-0 lead by the 'Dawgs.

On to the fourth, where the big bats shined for Gardner-Webb. Christopher drove a sixth run across the plate for Gardner-Webb, just ahead of Pesqueira who sent Christopher home with an RBI double on the very next at-bat. The duo combined to go 4-for-7 on the game with three runs scored and three RBI.

Despite a Furman run in the fourth and one in the sixth, the Runnin' Bulldogs lead was never under pressure. Freshman pitcher Anna Hornbaker grabbed the fourth win of her season, tossing 5.0 quality innings and allowing only one earned run. Junior pitcher Kalyn Kyle closed the game with 2.0 innings at the finish, striking out two and not allowing a base-runner.

UP NEXT
The Furman Round Robin continues on Saturday, with the 'Dawgs facing Youngstown State again at 9 a.m. and hosts Furman again at 2 p.m.