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University of Houston
19-9, 2-0
Southern Miss
7-15, 0-2
Softball Stymies Southern Miss
3/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 10, 2007
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Laura Durham and Haley Valis belted solo home runs coupled with a two-hit shutout from Barbie Love as the University of Houston softball team completed a doubleheader sweep securing a 5-0 game two win against Southern Miss Saturday afternoon in a Conference USA contest at the USM Softball Complex.
"I felt like we did a good job of playing in control and staying composed in critical situations," head coach Kyla Holas said. "Barbie made some mental adjustments from her start against Texas A&M and did an excellent job of making in-game adjustments on the fly."
Houston (19-9, 2-0 C-USA) fired out to a 1-0 advantage in the first inning as Jessica Valis legged out an infield single and used alert baserunning to score on a Katie Bush bunt single. USM catcher Kristin Pilgrim threw out Bush trying to advance to second base, but that allowed Valis to score with no one back to cover the plate.
Durham and Haley Valis pushed the lead to 3-0 in the third inning with a pair of solo home runs. The Cougars tacked on two more runs in the fourth inning for the final margin of 5-0.
Love (3-2) retired 12 of the first 14 batters she faced and carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning before Pilgrim knocked a single to left field. Allison Bullard drew a walk and Melissa Prouty reached on a Christa Raley error. However, Raley ended the frame fielding the ball and fired back to Jessica Valis to pick off pinch runner Kristen Chaney leaning towards home plate.
"I wanted to go out and pitch a much calmer game than I did last time out against Texas A&M," Love said. "My screw and rise balls put me over the top today and gave me more pitches to work with. The key for me was to get ahead early because that allowed me to pitch my game."
The Cougars conclude the series Sunday afternoon with a single game at Southern Miss. First pitch against the Golden Eagles is on-tap for 1pm. Live stats will be available on UHCougars.com in addition to a live webcast provided by the USM ISP Sports Network for those fans with the CSTV All-Access package.
"We need to finish series out if we want to establish ourselves in conference," Holas said. "That will be our main focus tomorrow."
"Southern Miss is going to come out with a lot of energy tomorrow," Nordstrom said. "We need to come out with the same intensity that we did today on offense and pitch strong."
Cougar Notes
Game two of today's doubleheader was the 28th meeting between Houston and Southern Miss on the softball diamond ... The Golden Eagles are Houston's most faced opponent ... UH has won 17 of the 28 meetings, including nine of the 11 games in the series dating back to the 2005 season ... Houston is 13-4 in day games and are 8-2 when wearing blue jerseys and blue pants this season ... The Cougars have won all 10 games when scoring four or more runs ... Jessica Valis and Elaina Nordstrom have started in all 90 games of their careers ... Durham also has played in all 90 games of her Houston career since transferring from Texas A&M ... Katie Bush has made 87 consecutive starts in centerfield ... Bush produced her eighth multi-hit game of the season and the 20th of her Cougar career ... The Brenham native is 18 hits away from 100-mark for her career ... Jessica Valis has hit safely in 21 of 27 games this season, including a stretch of seven of her last nine outings ... With one hit, Valis is one hit away from matching Jeanie Davis (2002-05) for the No. 9 position in program history ... Houston improves to 39-11 when the Shiner native scores a run in her career ...Laura Durham cranked her fourth home run of the season and 13th of her career ... The Pearland native passed Brandi Clark (2003-06) and tied teammate Elaina Nordstrom for the No. 7 slot in program history ... The duo is one home run away from matching Kim Nesloney (2002-05) in sixth place ... Elaina Nordstrom has tallied a season-best four-game hitting streak ... The California native reached base in 23 of 27 games on the season and 79 of 90 games of her career ... Nordstrom is 17 hits shy from 100 for her career ... With a single in the fifth inning, Christa Raley has reached base in 15 of her last 16 games ... Haley Valis has registered a hit in four of her last five games and has registered a RBI in back-to-back games ... Courtney Spittler slapped a single in the fourth inning ... Barbie Love fired her second complete game shutout of the season ... The Manvel native retired 12 of the first 14 batters she faced.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Love, Barbie (3-2)
L: NARAMORE, Shea (6-15)
Batting:
HR: Durham, Laura 1 ; Valis, Haley 1
RBI: Durham, Laura 1 ; Raley, Christa 1 ; Valis, Haley 1
SH: Nordstrom, Elaina 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Valis, Jessica 1 ; Bush, Katie 1 ; Durham, Laura 2 ; Valis, Haley 1
SB: Raley, Christa 2
Base Running:
CS: HILL, Megan 1
