Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Friday, March 18
Murfreesboro, TN
6:00 PM
Middle Tennessee
13-14, 1-0
4
vs
0
Southern Miss
17-10, 0-4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Southern Miss
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
0
Middle Tennessee
1
0
3
0
0
0
X
4
9
0
Mead’s career night leads Middle Tennessee to 4-0 win in conference opener
3/18/2022 8:56:00 PM | Softball
Murfreesboro, Tenn.—One long winter's worth of work all culminated into the one pitch thrown at the Blue Raider softball field tonight in Middle Tennessee's (13-14, 1-0 CUSA) conference opener.
MT starter Gretchen Mead bumped her mask up and with the bases loaded and Southern Miss (17-10, 0-1 CUSA) cleanup hitter Terrica Williams at the plate, the 4-0 Blue Raider lead could easily be erased with one swing of the bat. Freshman Ava Tepe called for a changeup, to which Mead obliged, and began her windup. Williams swatted and missed at the pitch and Mead pumped her fists and let out a scream of excitement that could be heard as far away as the Murphy Center. It bought her one more inning where she finished off the Golden Eagles with a complete game shutout in a 4-0 Middle Tennessee victory.
"Gretchen pitched well tonight because she worked her butt off to get to where she was ready to do this," said Blue Raider Head Coach Jeff Breeden. "I'm so proud of her. She's a senior that's been in this program a long time and she dealt tonight against a really good team, a team that beat Florida."
Mead's final line of seven shutout innings included allowing just five hits while racking up a career-high 10 strikeouts, all on less than 100 pitches. It was the third start of the season for Mead, and the second complete game shutout of her career, the first coming last year against Western Illinois on March 21.
"(Tonight) felt like a dream," Mead said. "It was crazy, it was fun, I was just playing to play. I was fighting for my life every at-bat. They were tough hitters. (During the sixth inning) the girl that was hitting was definitely a threat. I knew I'd popped her up twice before and I had confidence in (Blue Raider catcher Ava Tepe) to throw a dirty pitch if she called one and that nobody would touch it."
Offensively, a three-run outburst in the third inning that increased the Middle Tennessee lead to 4-0 after a run in the first inning was all the Blue Raiders needed. Right Fielder Amaya Harris led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch and was then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kelci Hill. With one out, freshman Laura Mealer's second single of the day scored Harris from second and with two down, Mealer came in to score on a Lani Rodriguez hit into short-right field. The final run of the inning was driven in by first baseman Kaylee Richetto with a line-drive hit into centerfield to bring Rodriguez in.
"Everyone in our lineup can get an extra base as long as we can get a ball into the outfield," Breeden said. "We were fortunate (in the third) to string some hits together and ran the bases well. Abby (Shoulders) did a great job of getting to third from first on one of those plays and as important a play as any was in the first when Kelci Hill scored on a sac-fly that wasn't hit very deep. She made a great slide at the plate to avoid the tag."
Defensively, freshman Ava Tepe called her first career complete game shutout behind the plate and Abby Shoulders made a couple of tough throws across the diamond on balls that barely hopped over the third base bag and took her momentum away from first base.
"Tepe called a great game tonight," Breeden said. "Tepe and Gretchen (Mead) executed Coach (Tony) Foti's gameplan to perfection tonight. When a pitcher is dealing like she is, it can be just as much the pitcher as it is the catcher. With Abby (Shoulders), you could tell by her play that she's gotten much more comfortable at third base tonight. She's a natural second baseman, but she gives us some speed over at third and has settled in great over there."
Middle Tennessee will hit the field tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. for the second game of its' three-game weekend set with Southern Miss.
FOLLOW THE BLUE RAIDERS
Follow Middle Tennessee Softball on social media on Facebook (/BlueRaiderSoftball), Twitter (MT_Softball) and Instagram (MT_Softball).
MT starter Gretchen Mead bumped her mask up and with the bases loaded and Southern Miss (17-10, 0-1 CUSA) cleanup hitter Terrica Williams at the plate, the 4-0 Blue Raider lead could easily be erased with one swing of the bat. Freshman Ava Tepe called for a changeup, to which Mead obliged, and began her windup. Williams swatted and missed at the pitch and Mead pumped her fists and let out a scream of excitement that could be heard as far away as the Murphy Center. It bought her one more inning where she finished off the Golden Eagles with a complete game shutout in a 4-0 Middle Tennessee victory.
"Gretchen pitched well tonight because she worked her butt off to get to where she was ready to do this," said Blue Raider Head Coach Jeff Breeden. "I'm so proud of her. She's a senior that's been in this program a long time and she dealt tonight against a really good team, a team that beat Florida."
Mead's final line of seven shutout innings included allowing just five hits while racking up a career-high 10 strikeouts, all on less than 100 pitches. It was the third start of the season for Mead, and the second complete game shutout of her career, the first coming last year against Western Illinois on March 21.
"(Tonight) felt like a dream," Mead said. "It was crazy, it was fun, I was just playing to play. I was fighting for my life every at-bat. They were tough hitters. (During the sixth inning) the girl that was hitting was definitely a threat. I knew I'd popped her up twice before and I had confidence in (Blue Raider catcher Ava Tepe) to throw a dirty pitch if she called one and that nobody would touch it."
Offensively, a three-run outburst in the third inning that increased the Middle Tennessee lead to 4-0 after a run in the first inning was all the Blue Raiders needed. Right Fielder Amaya Harris led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch and was then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kelci Hill. With one out, freshman Laura Mealer's second single of the day scored Harris from second and with two down, Mealer came in to score on a Lani Rodriguez hit into short-right field. The final run of the inning was driven in by first baseman Kaylee Richetto with a line-drive hit into centerfield to bring Rodriguez in.
"Everyone in our lineup can get an extra base as long as we can get a ball into the outfield," Breeden said. "We were fortunate (in the third) to string some hits together and ran the bases well. Abby (Shoulders) did a great job of getting to third from first on one of those plays and as important a play as any was in the first when Kelci Hill scored on a sac-fly that wasn't hit very deep. She made a great slide at the plate to avoid the tag."
Defensively, freshman Ava Tepe called her first career complete game shutout behind the plate and Abby Shoulders made a couple of tough throws across the diamond on balls that barely hopped over the third base bag and took her momentum away from first base.
"Tepe called a great game tonight," Breeden said. "Tepe and Gretchen (Mead) executed Coach (Tony) Foti's gameplan to perfection tonight. When a pitcher is dealing like she is, it can be just as much the pitcher as it is the catcher. With Abby (Shoulders), you could tell by her play that she's gotten much more comfortable at third base tonight. She's a natural second baseman, but she gives us some speed over at third and has settled in great over there."
Middle Tennessee will hit the field tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. for the second game of its' three-game weekend set with Southern Miss.
FOLLOW THE BLUE RAIDERS
Follow Middle Tennessee Softball on social media on Facebook (/BlueRaiderSoftball), Twitter (MT_Softball) and Instagram (MT_Softball).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Mead, Gretchen (3-2)
L: Leinstock, Morgan (10-4)
Batting:
2B: Davis, Alyssa 1 ; Lee, Jana 1
Batting:
RBI: Mealer, Laura 1 ; Rodriguez, Lani 2 ; Richetto, Kaylee 1
SH: Hill, Kelci 1
SF: Rodriguez, Lani 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Harris, Amaya 1 ; Hill, Kelci 1 ; Mealer, Laura 1 ; Rodriguez, Lani 1
SB: Mealer, Laura 1
CS: Harvey, Anyce 1
HBP: Harris, Amaya 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
2
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
1
H
1
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
OF/INF
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
P
/ SoftballSS/2B
/ Softball
UT
/ Softball
2B/3B
/ Softball
IF/UT
/ Softball
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