​MIAMI SOFTBALL

Hitchcock tosses two-hit shutout against Paladins

First home/MAC game scheduled  for Friday

Ashley Hitchcock

ATHENS, GA -- The Miami RedHawks are coming home on a winning note.

Miami softball shutout Furman for the second day in a row Sunday, run-ruling the Paladins 8-0 in five innings. That victory followed a 5-0 shutout of Furman Saturday at Jack Turner Stadium. 

With the win, MU raised its season record to 15-6, while Furman fell to 10-12. The RedHawks play their first home game and open Mid-American Conference play Friday (March 15, 5 p.m. ET) when they host Western Michigan. Miami and WMU will then close the weekend with a Sunday double-heade (first game at 1 p.m. ET).

Ashley Hitchcock (5-3) went the distance for MU. She allowed just two hits, striking out two and walking two. Taylor Miller took the loss, surrendering . . .

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 . . . six runs without recording an out in the first inning. Angelica Riccicardi came on in relief, pitching shutout baseball until the fifth inning. 

Miami jumped on the Paladins early, stringing together five hits and two walks while scoring six runs. Four of those runs came before Furman retired a RedHawk batter. Sami Bewick's groundout (MU's first out of the game) pushed across another run, and catcher McKenna Campbell doubled in the final tally with MU's only extra base hit of the inning. 

After the opening blitz, neither team scored until Miami plated two runs in the fifth. Jenna Golembiewski homered to right center, driving in Kari Krueger (1-4) to invoke the run rule.

Golembiewski (3) and Karli Spaid (2) had MU's only multi-hit performances on the day.