CHARLESTON, S.C.—The South Dakota softball team rallied for five runs in the final inning to beat Charleston Southern 8-6 on the final day of the Buccaneer's Willie Jewell Invitational. The Coyotes won four straight games to end opening weekend with the tournament's best record at 4-1.
South Dakota trailed 4-3 thru three innings and kept knocking on the door before punching through in the seventh. The Coyotes left two on in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings and were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position heading into the seventh. That changed with freshman
Jadyn DeWitte's two-run double that closed the gap to 6-5. Two batters later,
Camille Fowler drove a sacrifice fly to center that plated pinch runner
Alexis Egan with the tying run.
It was a miscue in right that gave USD the lead.
Dustie Durham smacked a hard line drive there with two outs that couldn't be handled, allowing the go-ahead runs to score. Durham pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh to complete the comeback.
Durham pitched 4 2/3 innings of relief to pick up her third win of the weekend. She allowed two runs on four hits and had one strike out. On the weekend, she allowed five runs in 17 2/3 innings of work for an ERA of 1.98. At the plate, she finished 9-for-18 (.500) with a double, two triples a grand slam home run and a team-best nine RBIs.
Senior
Jamie Holscher was 3-for-3 against Charleston Southern Sunday and hit a team-best .600 (9-for-15) in South Carolina. Sophomore
Lauren Eamiguel was 2-for-3 Sunday including a two-run homer in the second that tied the game at 2-2. It was her first home run of the season and fifth of her career.
South Dakota outscored its foes 50-14 in the tournament's five games. The team hit .377 and finished with a team ERA of 1.91.
The Coyotes will spend the next two weekends in Madeira Beach, Florida. First up are Friday games against Quinnipiac (0-0) and George Mason (0-3) at 11:30 a.m. (ET) and 2 p.m. (ET), respectively.
