ROCK HILL, S.C. --- Campbell tallied 17 hits and claimed an 11-2 victory over Radford in both team's opening game in the 2016 Big South Conference Softball Championship. Amber Schisler went 5-for-5 at the plate with a pair of RBIs for CU while Caroline Smith had four RBIs and a two-run homerun.
The fifth-seeded Camels (26-29) move into the winners bracket of the tournament and will top-seeded Longwood on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Katie Baker (10-11) took the win in the circle after striking out a pair and giving up two earned runs and two walks in three innings pitched. Schisler pitched four innings in relief and didn't allow a run on three hits with two strikeouts and two walks.
CU jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead through two innings. Smith opened the scoring with a two-RBI single with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the first. Megan Mozingo led off the top of the second with a double before moving to third on a Cierra Harris single. Mozingo scored off a Baker sacrifice fly before Harris crossed the plate on a RBI single by Rachel McCollum. Schisler scored McCollum on her second hit of the day later in the frame.
Baker stranded four Radford (32-25) players in scoring position throughout the first three innings and ended threats in the first and second with strikeouts. However, she worked into trouble when the first two Highlander batters reached in the fourth before the Camels made the pitching change to Schisler.
Schisler walked her first batter to load the bases before Radford scored a pair on a fielders choice and a hit-by-pitch. The Camels worked out of trouble with two groundball outs at the plate and a strikeout to limit the damage. Campbell quickly got the two runs back in the top of the fifth when Taesha DuBoise scored a pair of runs on a single through the left side of the infield.
Smith crushed her homer to left field in the top of the sixth to score Schisler, who led off the frame with a single. CU added two more insurance runs in the top of the seventh with RBI singles from Schisler and Cristina Hall.
Schisler did the rest of the work in the circle and a nice 6-5-3 double play in the fifth ended a Radford threat. The Highlanders were only able to tally single base hits in the sixth and seventh before suffering the nine-run defeat.
Every Campbell batter reached base at least once during the contest and its 17 hits was the most against a Big South opponent this season. Also, no Camel batter struck out for just the third game this year. DuBoise, Hall, Mozingo and Harris each tallied two hits on the day while McCollum drew a pair of walks.
Whitney Davis led Radford at the plate with two hits in four trips while Hannah Medlam and Marissa Gagliano each had a RBI. Lauren McIntyre (8-2) took the loss in the circle after giving up four earned runs and seven hits in just two innings of work.
