CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Senior
Liz Carter added another accolade to her illustrious career on Saturday, becoming the second player in Texas A&M-Corpus Christi softball history to strikeout 500 batters in a career.
Carter (8-15) tossed a two-hitter as the Islanders (9-30, 3-15) knocked off the Huskies (15-22, 6-15) with a 4-1 win in the series finale at Chapman Field.
The Huskies could not touch the Austin native through the opening three innings, as Carter struck out six on the afternoon.
"I'm really happy for the team," head coach
Blake Miller said. "We put up 11 hits, so it was good to have that support for Liz. It made it an easy game with Liz being dominant in the circle and the hitters getting up and doing their job a the plate."
Candice Hadd put the Islanders ahead in the third inning.
Kandace Johnson reached on a fielder's choice before Carter walked with two outs. Hadd stepped to the plate and doubled an 0-2 pitch down the right field line to empty the bases.
Houston Baptist cut the lead in half in the top of the fifth. Kay Schroeder scored unearned from second on a two-base error by the Blue and Green.
Corpus Christi responded in the bottom half of frame with two runs on three hits. Johnson moved
Mackinzee Griebel over the third with a one-out double. Carter drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, before Hadd singled to right to bring in pinch runner
Alexis Richardson from second.
Carter made quick work of the final six outs of the game, needing just 23 pitches to close out the game.
Savannah Sandoval and Griebel went 3-for-4 on the afternoon, both their second three-hit games of the year. Hadd chipped in with a 2-for-3 performance and two RBI.
Shae Bibby (2-4) took the loss for the Huskies, as the Blue and Green strung together 11 hits without striking out once.
#CARTERCOUNTER
Carter notched strikeout 500 with the second out of the second inning. The senior joined Sarah Pauly as the only other Islander to cross the plateau. Pauly served as Carter's pitching coach on the Island during her freshman and sophomore seasons. In her career, Carter has climbed to second in career wins, appearances, starts, complete games, innings pitched, and strikeouts.
"I was just going at them after going 12 innings yesterday," Carter said. "I was just throwing my stuff and letting the defense do their thing behind me. It's pretty cool to be second best to coach Pauly. I'm happy that I was able to come here and accomplish something like that has come from a lot of hard work over my career."
Now with 139 punchouts on the campaign, Carter has eclipsed the century mark in each of her four seasons in the Coastal Bend, giving Pauly company in the club.
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- Go Islanders -
