Delay Doesn't Damper DePaul's Day
May 12, 2001 | Softball
May 12, 2001
LOUISVILLE, Ky.- Rain forced DePaul and Southern Miss to suspend its winner's bracket game until Saturday morning with the Blue Demons leading 1-0 with one out in the bottom of the second. When play resumed, Sarah Martz struck out the first batter she faced and consequently broke DePaul's single season strikeouts record. That set the tone for a 5-0 DePaul win that placed them in the championship game of the Conference USA Tournament, presented by U of L Healthcare.
Following Martz' harmless 2/3 inning the Blue Demons shot out of the gate in the top of the third. Three consecutive singles by Liz Bouck, Martz and Shavaughne Desecki loaded the bases for Gina Ramacci. Ramacci then spanked the team's fourth straight single through the middle and drove in Bouck and Martz. DePaul added a third run when Ramacci scored on the back end of a first and third double steal.
"That's DePaul softball right there," said head coach Eugene Lenti. "We came out aggressive, swung the bats well, and pitched and fielded as well as we have all year."
The Blue Demons poked an even larger hole in the Golden Eagles confidence balloon in USM's half of the third. Martz struck out the lead off batter, but then allowed Amanda Brown to reach with the Eagles' first hit of the day. The hit was moot four pitches later when Ramacci fired a strike to Bouck catching Brown stealing. Martz then aced Robbi Roberson on a changeup that caught her looking and ended the inning.
"I think we may have caught them off guard early with how aggressive we came out, but that's how we like to play," said Lenti. "We won 5-0, but we could have won by more. We had a few base running mistakes that cost us, but we got the hits when we needed them and played solid throughout."
Martz went the distance and regained the form that led her to win the league's Player of the Year award. She struck out seven and allowed just three hits in the victory. She improves her record to 26-6 this season and is one win away from tying the school's single season wins mark.
"When you only give up three hits and keep the ball in the ballpark against a good hitting team like Southern Miss you put yourself in a position to win a lot of ballgames and that's exactly what Sarah did for us," said Lenti.
The Blue Demons added an insurance run in the sixth to push the score to 5-0. Sarah Douglas reached with her second single of the day to lead off the inning. Dana Jakusz then hit a high chopper back to the pitcher that USM's Melissa Cundiff couldn't handle cleanly. In a rush to make the throw to first, she launched her toss wide of the bag and allowed Douglas to score all the way from first.
The victory was also a milestone for the team as it improved its ledger to 50-13-1. It marks just the second time in the program's history that a team has won 50 or more games. The only other squad to accomplish the feat was the 1999 group that finished third in the College World Series and won 54 games.
The Blue Demons will have to wait throughout the afternoon before they know whom they will play for the championship. South Florida and Louisville began their game around 11:15 a.m. EST and the winner of that game will face Southern Miss at 2 p.m. DePaul will meet the winner of the 2 p.m. game for the tournament championship at approximately 4:30 p.m. EST.
