Softball John Potter, Media Relations Assistant

Dixie State continues winning ways with 2-0 victory over Adelphi

Duncan notches second shutout of Championships

OKLAHOMA CITY - Senior pitcher Michelle Duncan (Gilbert, AZ/Gilbert High School) threw her second shutout in as many days while sophomore Josey Hartman (Mapleton, UT/Maple Mountain) lined a RBI triple, as the fourth-ranked Red Storm of Dixie State improved to 2-0 at the NCAA Division II Softball Championships with a 2-0 victory over Adelphi on Friday on Field 4 at the ASA Hall of Fame complex.
 
The Storm improves to 51-7, winning its 17th straight contest, and remains unbeaten in the tournament at 2-0. They will next play on Sunday with a chance to wrap up a spot in the National Championship game against an opponent to be determined on Saturday night through the loser's bracket.
 
Dixie State was held to four hits on Friday with three coming from the bottom half of the lineup.
 
Duncan extended her current scoreless innings streak to 28 innings after notching her fourth successive shutout. She allowed five hits over seven frames, walked nobody and struck out three Panther batters.
 
"They were a little aggressive at the beginning, just swinging early in the count, because they probably knew I was going to throw strikes to get ahead," Duncan said. "I just really kept them off-balance by moving it in and out and up and down and off-speed."
 
The Red Storm jumped out to an early lead with a run in the top of the first. Freshman Janessa Bassett (Stansbury Park, UT/Stansbury Park) drew a lead off walk and stole second. Senior Courtney Hine (San Dimas, CA/San Dimas High School) also walked and senior Marla Reiter (Rolinda, CA/Central High School) singled to load the bases. With two outs, sophomore Brooklyn Beardshear (Tucson, AZ/Sahuaro) was plunked by an inside pitch to make it 1-0.
 
Dixie State added its second run in the top of the fourth. Sophomore Mallory Paulson (Fruita, CO/Fruita Monument) lined a single to right field. Two batters later, Hartman battled with a 2-2 count and tripled by splitting the gap in right center, scoring Paulson.
 
'Keep battling," Hartman said. "Finally I got the pitch and I just knew I had to hit it. I thought for a minute it might be (out), but then I saw it hit the fence and I kept running."
 
Adelphi (31-21) rallied in the fifth and seventh innings. With runners at first and second, Beardshear took a hard ground ball to third, tagged her bag and fired across the diamond for an inning0ending double play. The Panthers got two more on base with a leadoff single and a two-out dropped pop up after Duncan and Paulson collided in an attempt to make the catch. Duncan returned to form and got AU leadoff hitter Krista King to pop out to Hartman in front of the second base bag.
 
Dixie State had chances to add insurance runs, but Adelphi thwarted multiple attempts.
 
"I felt like we played well, (but) we didn't execute well," Dixie State head coach Randy Simkins said. "We stranded a small village full of runners. We had eight left on base. We've got to do a better job with that. We had a few of those – a runner on third with less than two-out situations in which we didn't come through."