Southern Miss Shuts Out Saint Louis, 9-0
May 10, 2001 | Softball
May 10, 2001
LOUISVILLE - Second-seeded Southern Miss (43-18) capitalized on four Saint Louis (25-33) errors and used the steady pitching of Melissa Cundiff to defeat the seventh-seeded Billikens, 9-0 in five innings in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament, presented by U of L Healthcare at Ulmer Stadium on Thursday afternoon. Southern Miss advances to meet either South Florida or UAB on Friday at 10 a.m. Saint Louis plays the loser of the USF-UAB game tonight at 6:30 p.m.
Cundiff, an all-freshman team selection, posted her 17th victory in 26 decisions by walking none and striking out six. Leftfielder Sarah Boyd complemented Cundiff's pitching with a 2-for-3 effort at the plate. She led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored when Melanie McMains reached on an error. Her base hit in the bottom of the third opened a two-run inning, as she scored on a single by Kristie Martin.
Southern Miss coach Gay McNutt was pleased to see her team overcome a sluggish offensive start.
"We got going by realizing that we needed to swing the bat," she said. "I felt really good about our performance, but we still need to swing the bats and be aggressive at the plate.
Heather Hubert took the loss for the Billikens, dropping to 10-19 on the season. SLU coach Jim Molloy knows that his team's defense must improve tonight.
"Southern Miss did a good job of moving runners into scoring position," he said. "That, combined with our errors at a critical time, contributed to our demise."
R H ESLU 000 00 0 2 4USM 042 03 9 7 1
WP: Cundiff (17-9)LP: Hubert (10-19)3B: BoydSH: Puttcamp, Roberson, Peters. McMains 2, MartinSB: Edwards, Peters, McMains, Martin
