Box Score

NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State softball team ran its wins streak to nine games and finished up the home portion of its schedule with a 9-0, six-inning victory over North Carolina A&T Sunday afternoon at the NSU Softball Field.

Junior Casey Pomeroy pitched her second shutout in a row and juniors Danielle Wright and Whitney Holland tallied three RBI each as NSU improved to 19-23 overall and 6-6 in the MEAC. The Aggies fell to 7-32, 1-8 and managed just five hits in the game.

Pomeroy (10-8) gave up five hits with six strikeouts and just one walk in six innings. A&T's Hope Fletcher (6-14) allowed 11 hits and nine earned runs in 5.2 innings before Wright's two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth ended the game on the eight-run rule. Fletcher also gave out seven free passes while failing to record a strikeout.

Wright went 2-for-4 with three runs and three RBI, while Holland also added a pair of hits with her three runs batted in. Freshman Nikki Jones and junior Jeanette Sauceda each added two hits on the afternoon. Pomeroy won her fifth straight game and has allowed just four runs in the last 32.1 innings.

NSU struck first in the bottom of the first inning, all with two outs. Freshman Melina Valles walked and advanced to third when Sauceda lined a double into the left field corner. Back-to-back singles by Holland and Jones made it 2-0, but after sophomore Gipsy Ramirez loaded the bases with a single back up the middle, Fletcher got junior Candice Vasquez to hit into a fielder's choice to end the threat.

After leaving two on base in the first, A&T stranded runners on first and third in the top of the fourth before the Spartans put two more runs on the board in the bottom of the frame. Wright was hit by the pitch and freshman Morgan Boyd walked, and Wright came home on a wild pitch when Boyd took off for second. Valles walked and Sauceda singled into left field to load the bases, and a sacrifice fly to center off the bat of Holland brought home Boyd.

Jones singled to load the bases before Fletcher again got out of the inning as NSU stranded three runners on. NSU left 11 on base for the entire game.

Pomeroy again got out of a jam in the fifth, leaving runners on second and third after retiring the last two batters of the inning. The Spartans continued to roll in the bottom half of the frame, as Wright singled into left field to score Vasquez. After Boyd walked to load the bases, Valles hit one to third, but the Aggies threw out junior Elizabeth Castaneda at the plate for the first out of the inning.

Sauceda hit into a fielder's choice to score Wright and Holland followed with a single into center field to bring home Boyd and make it 7-0 in favor of NSU. Fletcher got out of the inning, but in the sixth freshman Kathy Cortez walked with two outs before Wright hit a 1-1 pitch over the center field wall for her eighth home run of the season.

Boyd scored a pair of runs in the game, while she and Wright both added two steals.

NSU will wrap up the regular season next weekend with a three-game series at North Carolina Central beginning Saturday at 1 p.m.