Elon Softball Phoenix Opens Tournament with Victory Over Northern Kentucky, 9-2

ELON, N.C. – The Elon University softball team continued its unbeaten streak at home as the Phoenix earned a 9-2 win versus Northern Kentucky on Friday, Feb. 15, in its opener of its second home tournament, the Elon February Classic, at Hunt Softball Park.

BOX SCORE

The Phoenix (5-1) did most of its damage against the Norse (0-2) in the fourth inning, scoring five runs in the frame. Elon also added three more runs across the dish in the sixth to improve to 5-0 on its home diamond so far in 2019.

At the Plate: Elon tallied 10 hits in the contest from five players…Allie Eith was a perfect 3-of-3 at the plate with three runs scored to lead the Phoenix…Erica Serafini (2-of-3), Ally Repko (2-of-4) and Ashtyn Foddrell also had multi-hit efforts versus NKU…Repko and Serafini led the Phoenix with three RBI each while Foddrell added two…Repko, Serafini and Foddrell also added a double to their stat lines.

In the Circle: Abby Barker took the win in the circle for the Phoenix, moving to 3-0 on the season…The Granville, Ohio, native threw 5.2 innings and allowed seven hits, two runs, one earned, with three strikeouts…Kenna Quinn threw 1.2 scoreless innings in relief and gave up one hit.

The Rundown
After scoreless first and second innings, Elon manufactured a run in the third. Eith led off the inning with a single and advance to second on a groundout to short. Serafini drove in Eith on an RBI single to push across the first run of the game.

The Phoenix exploded for five runs in its home half of the fourth. Keagan Goldwait led off the frame with a free pass before Foddrell’s RBI double scored her for Elon’s second run of the game. Foddrell would eventually advance to third with two outs and plated a run off Eith’s RBI single to left field. After Rebecca Murray reached on a fielding error to give Elon runners on first and second, Serafini cleared the bases with a RBI double into left center. Repko followed with a double into right center to drive in Serafini as the Phoenix took a 6-0 advantage.

Northern Kentucky came up and scored twice in the top of the sixth to cut into Elon’s lead, but the Phoenix put up a three-spot in the bottom of the inning. Repko drove in a pair of runs on a single up the middle while Foddrell added another RBI on another base hit to right field to help the Phoenix add its ninth run of the game for its eventual 9-2 victory over Northern Kentucky.

On Deck
The Phoenix is back for its second day of the February Classic with a pair of contests. Elon opens the day versus Virginia at 12:45 p.m. before wrapping up the day versus Hampton at 3 p.m.