UMBC

Julia Culotta went 5-for-7 with a double, a homer and four RBI against Temple.

BALTIMORE—The UMBC softball team (13-9) extended its winning streak to eight games with an impressive offensive performance in a doubleheader sweep of Temple (10-14) Tuesday afternoon at UMBC Softball Stadium. The Retrievers took the first game, 8-5, then won the nightcap, 12-4, in five innings.

Game 1: UMBC 8, Temple 5

After trailing for most of the game, UMBC rallied for five runs in the last two innings to earn the victory.

Temple got on the board first thanks to a one-out RBI double by shortstop Sarah Prezioso, but the Retrievers took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by junior first baseman Katie Ferguson (North East, Md./North East/Cecil CC) and a bases loaded walk by junior catcher Angela Yannone (Pasadena, Md./Chesapeake).

But the Owls scored twice in the second and once in the third to go up by a score of 4-2. UMBC got one back in the bottom of the third on Yannone’s RBI single, but that was the Retrievers’ last hit until senior left fielder Julia Culotta (Street, Md./North Harford/Tennessee) beat out an infield single to lead off the fifth, which ignited a three-run rally. Sophomore third baseman Ashley Scroggin (Stafford, Va./North Stafford) crushed a two-run homer over the center field fence to put UMBC on top, 5-4, and three batters later, freshman shortstop Jessica Warner (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) laced a double down the left field line to drive in the Retrievers’ sixth run of the game.

Temple got an unearned run in the sixth to pull to within one run at 6-5, but Culotta blasted her fourth home run of the season in the bottom of the inning, a two-run shot, to account for the final two runs of the game, and sophomore Heather Brown (Pasadena, Md./Northeast), who had relieved senior starter Stephanie Weigman (Elkridge, Md./Archbishop Spalding) in the sixth, set the Owls down in order in the seventh to earn her first career save.

Weigman (8-5) earned the victory despite allowing five runs (four earned) on nine hits and four walks in 5.1 innings. She struck out five batters in the game, while Brown fanned three in 1.2 innings of work. Kristen Marris (5-7) took the loss after giving up eight runs on nine hits and seven walks in the six-inning complete game.

Game 2: UMBC 12, Temple 4 (5 innings)

The Retrievers jumped on Temple starter Brooklin White early, scoring four runs in the first and three more in the second. Scroggin highlighted the four-run first with her team-leading fifth home run of the season, a two-run shot to center.

Senior second baseman Lauren Brummell’s (Hanover, Va./Hanover) fourth home run of the year with two outs in the third gave UMBC a 9-0 lead, but the Owls exploded for four runs on five hits in the fourth, including a two-run homer by left fielder Melissa Robbins.

The Retrievers answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning on RBI singles by Ferguson and senior first baseman Lauren O’Malley (Pasadena, Md./Archbishop Spalding) to make it an 11-4 game, and Culotta ended it in the fifth with a one-out walkoff single to left that plated junior catcher Becca Bernheimer (Lewes, Del./Cape Henlopen).

Ferguson (4-2) allowed four runs on seven hits in 3.1 innings of work to earn the win. White (5-5) took the loss after giving up seven runs (six earned) on three hits and four walks

Culotta, Ferguson and Scroggin, the 3-through-5 hitters in the Retriever lineup, combined to go 6-for-7 with seven RBI and five runs scored in the game and 11-for-17 with 16 RBI and 10 runs scored in the doubleheader.

The Retrievers return to action on Wednesday, when they host Rhode Island in a doubleheader beginning at 1:30 p.m.