University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Wichita State
No. 23 Tar Heels Down Shockers
February 13, 2009 | Softball
Feb. 13, 2009
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Danielle Spaulding drove in four runs and continued her dominance in the circle in Carolina's first game of the Carolina Classic Friday afternoon as the Tar Heels cruised to a 7-0 win over Wichita State. Spaulding and her battery mate Brittany McKinney each tallied two hits for the Tar Heels.
The Tar Heels pushed across a single run in the bottom of the second when Brittany McKinney led off with a double off the right center wall before Emily Troup drove a single back up the middle to give Carolina the early lead. Carolina would tack on three more runs in the bottom of the third when Danielle Spaulding drove a pitch over the scoreboard in left field for a three-run opposite field home run. Back-to-back one out singles by Christine Knauer and Breanna Brown put Spaulding in position to help herself out and that is just what she did as she tallied her first home run of the year.
A Stephanie Murad fielder's choice gave Carolina a 5-0 advantage after the Tar Heels loaded the bases with Spaulding and McKinney each picking up singles before Emily Troup drew a base on balls. A bases loaded walk and a sacrifice fly provided the Tar Heels with their final margin of 7-0 thanks to Spaulding's dominating performance.
The Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., native continued her string of impressive performances as she tallied 14 strikeouts for the second time this season. Spaulding came into action on an unheard of streak as she struck out the final two batters of her outing against Texas A&M Corpus Christi and then followed that up by tallying all 12 outs of her outing against UNC Wilmington via strikeout and then opened the game against Wichita State by picking up three K's. A pop out to short in the top of the second ended Spaulding's streak at 19 straight outs by strikeout but the junior picked up where she left off to end the second with another strikeout before piling up the strikeouts the rest of the way. Spaulding finished the game with 14 strikeouts and extended her season-opening scoreless streak to 24 innings with the complete game shutout.
Carolina will take on George Washington in game three of the Carolina Classic to cap off Friday's tournament action.
