CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Saturday's action at the USF-Clearwater Parks and Recreation Showcase featured a pair of Jackrabbit softball victories, as South Dakota State defeated Colgate, 8-0, and Army, 5-1.
SDSU is now 17-5 on the year with a 7-1 mark on its spring break trip.
South Dakota State 8, Colgate 0 (Five innings) Kendra Conard (5-0) tossed four complete innings in the win, allowing just two hits without walking a batter. She struck out one and faced just one over the minimum. Jadelyn Johnson tossed the fifth and had a strikeout.
Scoreless through one, the Jacks blew the game open with a seven-run second inning. Beaudry opened the scoring with a solo home run and Kelsey Lenox followed with a single. Two outs later, Daugherty doubled to push Lenox to third, and both scored on Andersen's single. After Ali Herdliska drew her 97th career walk, Rushing sent a 3-1 pitch over the wall for a three-run home run.
Ahead 6-0 at that point, Lindsey Crist kept the offense rolling with a single before racing around the basepaths on Beaudry's second hit of the inning.
That score held until the fourth, when Andersen hit her fourth home run of the week to put the Jacks in run-rule territory, where it stayed the rest of the way.
South Dakota State 5, Army 1 Emma Hardin (2-1) started and tossed 5.1 innings in the win, scattering seven hits and a walk with one run allowed. She struck out four before Taylor Compton entered in relief, earning the save over 1.2 innings pitched. Compton did not allow a baserunner.
Kerigan Torres was 3-for-3 on the afternoon with a triple and an RBI, while Andersen drove in a pair with another triple.
Ponce had a pair of hits as she and Herdliska drove in the other two Jackrabbit runs.
SDSU manufactured a 2-0 lead in the second, pulling together a two-out rally with four consecutive singles from Beaudry, Baily Janssen, Yanney Ponce and Kerigan Torres.
The Jackrabbits tacked on another run in the third, going up 3-0 on the Black Knights. Daugherty opened the frame with a single, and after moving to third as Andersen reached on an error, trotted home as Rushing sent a ball into center.
Army got one back in the fourth, but South Dakota State added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh to go up four (5-1). Ponce and Torres started the burst with a back-to-back singles, and with two gone in the frame Andersen roped a two-RBI triple to the left-center gap.
Up Next South Dakota State wraps up its spring break trip Sunday with a pair of games. The Jackrabbits will meet Providence at 8 a.m. CST before the final game of the USF-Clearwater Parks and Recreation Showcase pits SDSU against Central Connecticut State at 10:15 a.m. CST.
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