Southern reaches 1,000 k's

By Eddie Hughes

Fresno State pitcher Jamie Southern greeted Texas-El Paso by reaching a strikeout milestone during game one of the Miners’ first-ever visit to Bulldog Diamond.

Southern became the 22nd player in NCAA history to reach 1,000 strikeouts in the fourth inning when she caught UTEP’s Denise Emmons looking at strike three.

UTEP’s softball program is 7-35 overall and 0-12 in the Western Athletic Conference in its inaugural season.

Southern recorded 10 strikeouts in the 3-0 victory over UTEP to bring her career total to 1,005, which puts her at No. 20 on the all-time list. She notched that number up to 1,008 when she came in to get the final four outs of the second game, a 4-0 Bulldogs’ win.

“ It’s really nice,” Southern said of her most recent milestone.

“ I don’t even know when I’m passing [milestones],” she said. “I just hope to get a win.”

The Bulldogs did just that, and it started with sophomore slugger Christina Clark.

She nearly elevated a home run over the center-field fence to lead off the bottom of the first inning, but the ball hit the top of the fence and bounced back into play for a double.

“ That was a heartbreaker,” Clark said. “I didn’t even see where it hit.”

With two outs, Clark took off from second to steal third. UTEP catcher Denise Emmons fired the throw to third base but no one was there to catch it and Clark came in to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead.

The Bulldogs left the bases loaded in the second when Clark hit a liner at the UTEP pitcher, who turned the double play.

“ We weren’t executing,” Clark said. “Just weren’t coming through at the plate.”

One run turned out to be enough, but the Bulldogs got two more runs just to be on the safe side.

With one out in the bottom of the second, Fresno State’s Rachel Donaldson singled in Lori Hoffman from third base to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead.

Clark put the Bulldogs ahead 3-0 when she scored on a wild pitch by UTEP starter pitcher Renee Dipuccio in the bottom of the fifth.

UTEP pitcher Malia Simmons relieved Dipuccio in the sixth inning, and went on to start game two of the doubleheader.

Clark again started the game with a hit as she placed a sharp liner into left field. Southern followed with an RBI double that rolled into the corner of left field to give the Bulldogs the early 1-0 lead in the second game.

The Bulldogs were threatening to score again with two runners on and one out, but a groundout by Mitzi Ing and strikeout by Leticia Pacheco ended the inning.

Simmons was pulled with one out in the bottom of the second in favor of Dipuccio. But the pitching change didn’t help.

Southern hit the ball over UTEP’s leaping left fielder for a two-run double to put Fresno State up 3-0.

Donaldson knocked in the Bulldogs’ fourth run with the last of four straight singles.