Thursday, March 05, 2009

UNF's Kara Rutenbar picked her birthday to have a career night in helping the University of North Florida softball team come from behind to sweep a doubleheader at home against Georgia Southern.

Rutenbar had five hits in two games and drove home six runs to help the Lady Ospreys (8-14) to a 10-4 victory in the opener followed by a 5-4 win in eight innings in game two.

The doubleheader sweep was the first of the season for UNF, which pounded out 21 hits through eight innings and piled up a combined 10 runs after the fifth inning of play.

In Hawaii, the FGCU softball team opened up the Malihini tournament at the University of Hawaii with a pair of wins on Thursday, each involving a milestone of sorts. The 2-1 victory over Oregon State was the 300th in the program’s history, while the 8-3 win over Mississippi State was just the second time the Eagles have knocked off a nationally-ranked opponent in school history.

USC Upstate pitchers Morgan Childers and Amber Hamilton turned in dominant performances in the circle to lead the Spartans to a sweep of UNC Wilmington with two shutouts in non-conference softball action Thursday afternoon at Cyrill Stadium. Upstate won game one, 5-0, and game two, 3-0.