April 22, 2001

Furman Drops 2-0 Game to Georgia Southern

STATESBORO, Ga. ­ Freshman Kim Griffin's RBI single in the fifth inning broke a scoreless tie and sent Georgia Southern on to a 2-0 Southern Conference win over Furman Sunday afternoon at Eagle Field. The Eagles (22-26, 12-5) remain in contention for a share of the SoCon championship but will have to sweep first-place Chattanooga in the regular season finale to do so.

GSU registered only three hits off Furman starter Chrissy Hacker, but two of those hits came off the bat of Griffin, one of which plated the go-ahead run. GSU starter Aimee Littlejohn was issued first base to lead off the inning when she was hit by a pitch. She then reached second on a sacrifice bunt and scored off Griffin's high bouncer up the middle. Griffin moved to second on the throw home, advanced to third on another sac bunt, and then scored off a wild pitch, giving the Eagles a 2-0 lead and the eventual win.

Furman (23-24, 9-6) had several valuable opportunities to post runs of its own. In the fourth, it left the bases loaded after a couple of walks and a Kelly Jack single. And in the sixth, a pair of singles put two aboard, but neither advanced any further as Littlejohn forced Kelly Van Houten to ground out to end the inning. Altogether, the Paladins stranded eight runners on base to GSU's four. Five different players each recorded hits for Furman.

Hacker (12-10) was handed the loss despite giving up only three hits, two runs and fanning four.Furman will play a non-conference doubleheader this week when it visits Georgia on Wednesday (4 p.m.). The Paladins will then close their regular season with a SoCon match-up against the fourth-place team, UNC Greensboro, at home..