Gillespie's 4 RBI Lead Blackbirds Past Cal Poly, 6-5, in Eight Innings

(boxscore)

2/24/06 -- Junior Randi Gillespie (San Jose, Calif.) tallied two hits and four runs batted in to help propel the Long Island University softball team to a 6-5 victory in extra innings at the Palm Springs Invitational on Saturday evening.

With the game tied at 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth, the Blackbirds' Leah Glenn (Huntington Beach, Calif.) was placed on second to start the inning as per international tiebreak rules. A sacrifice bunt by Krystal Mejia (Sylmar, Calif.) advanced her to third base. With two outs, freshman Britnee Edwards (Mesa, Az.) legged out a bunt single that scored Glenn and won the game for LIU.

Freshman Jenny Giles (Melbourne, Fla.) got her third win of the season in the circle for the Blackbirds. Sophomore Celina Castillo (Redwood City, Calif.) finished with three hits and an RBI while sophomore Alyssa Winslow (San Jacinto, Calif.) added two hits and two runs scored.

After a solo home run by Lisa Modglin led off the game for Cal Poly, the Blackbirds responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning. An error by the Mustangs' shortstop extended the inning for Gillespie and she made Cal Poly pay with a two-run shot that gave LIU its first lead of the tournament.

The Blackbirds would score another unearned run in the second inning, as Castillo singled home senior Alissa Villanueva (Pacoima, Calif.) to boost their lead to two, 3-1.

With the score 3-2 in the top half of the fourth, Cal Poly exploded for three runs in the frame. Modglin did a large portion of the damage with a bases-loaded double that plated two. Kelly Comstock followed with an RBI single that gave the Mustangs a 5-3 advantage.

Not to be outdone, Gillespie provided some two-out magic in the fifth with a two-run double to the right-centerfield gap that knotted the game at 5-5.

Following two scoreless innings in which each team had a runner at second but failed to cash in, Cal Poly advanced a runner to third with one out in the eighth. Giles was up to the challenge, inducing two ground ball outs to keep the game deadlocked and set up the winning sequence.

The softball team will face Baylor in its final game of the 2006 Palm Springs Classic at 12:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 26.