George Washington University
20-7
Siena
3-11
Softball Claims Buff & Blue Challenge Title
3/18/2018 12:00:00 AM | Softball
WASHINGTON - Kaitlin Buff and Sierra Lange shut down Siena on Sunday, lifting George Washington softball to a 4-0 win in the Buff and Blue Challenge championship game.
Buff pitched the first six innings at GW Softball Field on the Mount Vernon Campus, working around seven singles and two walks to keep the Saints scoreless.Lange closed it out with a 1-2-3 seventh to finish the Colonials' fifth victory of the weekend and 11th straight overall. They beat Siena and Lafayette twice and Brown once to take their own tournament title and move within one of the program record for consecutive wins.
In the championship, GW (20-7) needed only four hits to score its four runs. In the second inning, the Colonials manufactured a run to take the lead. Morgan Rinehart led off with a walk, moved to second on Alessandra Ponce's single, stole third and scored on Rochelle Draper's ground out.
Jenna Cone continued her recent offensive surge with an RBI double in the third that scored Sidney Bloomfield, who had walked. The reigning A-10 Player of the Week hit .563 (9-for-16) on the weekend with five doubles, a home run and 12 RBIs.
GW extended the advantage to 4-0 with two more in the bottom of the fifth. Elena Shelepak had an RBI single before Rinehart knocked in a run with a fielder's choice. The efficient performance capped another all-around strong offensive weekend for the Colonials, who averaged eight runs per game in the tournament and hit .364 as a team.
Buff was the top pitching performer with three wins to improve her record to 6-0. The sophomore from California didn't allow an earned run in 13 2/3 innings to lower her season ERA to a team-best 1.79. Sunday's shutout of Siena was GW's sixth of the season.
ON DECK: GW is set to host UMBC on Wednesday at 3 p.m. in a rescheduled game before opening A-10 play at home with a three-game series against St. Bonaventure next weekend.
WATCH THIS: Hear from Cone and Buff after Sunday's win over Siena.
Hear from Jenna Cone and Kaitlin Buff after our 5-0 weekend at the Buff & Blue Challenge! #RaiseHigh pic.twitter.com/LPn2M39SiD
-- GW Softball (@GW_Softball) March 18, 2018
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Buff, Kaitlin (6-0)
L: Butts, Lauren (1-4)
Batting:
SH: Ortiz, Jazmin 1
Batting:
2B: Cone, Jenna 1
RBI: Cone, Jenna 1 ; Shelepak, Elena 1 ; Rinehart, Morgan 1 ; Draper, Rochelle 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Fuentes, Marta 1 ; Bloomfield, Sidney 1 ; Rinehart, Morgan 1 ; Ortlieb, Olivia 1
SB: Cone, Jenna 1 ; Rinehart, Morgan 1 ; Tejcek, Riley 1
