DePaul University Athletics
DePaul Left in the Dark by a "Luna Eclipse"
2/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | SOFTBALL
AUSTIN, TEXAS - You might say the Blue Demons were left in the dark by a "Luna Eclipse" Saturday night in the Lone Star State.
Texas freshman right-hander Blaire Luna, who tossed a no-hitter in her college debut Friday night, followed up with 17 strikeouts in a 4-1 victory over DePaul in the semifinals of the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational at McCombs Field.
No. 21/20 DePaul (1-3) will face No. 19/22 North Carolina (1-3) at 10 a.m. Sunday in the third-place game while unranked Texas (4-0) will take on No. 13/18 LSU (2-2) in the title game.
"The kid was totally on fire," DePaul coach Eugene Lenti said about the 5-foot, 8-inch Longhorn rookie who is from Austin. "She had us fooled, and we didn't give ourselves many chances to score.
"After her no-hitter, she had one relief appearance and didn't give up any hits. We were the first team to get a hit off her."
That would come courtesy of Simone Ashkar, who led off the second inning with a blast over the center-field fence to give DePaul a 1-0 lead. Luna recovered quickly and struck out the side, give her five strikeouts in the first two innings.
Texas tied it 1-1 in the bottom of the inning on Kim Bruins' RBI single.
Katelyn Braget singled, Ashkar was hit by a pitch and Marie Thompson walked in the fourth inning to load the bases for DePaul. But Luna escaped any damage when she struck out Alex Morocco. Luna had pitched an eight-inning no-hitter in a 1-0 victory over North Carolina on Friday.
Bruins hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth that struck a Ford pick-up truck in the parking lot beyond the left-field fence. Amy Hooks ripped a solo home run in the sixth to give Luna plenty of cushion.
DePaul starter Becca Heteniak (0-2) was the victim of those home runs along with five other hits while striking out five and walking a pair.
"Becca struggled again tonight," Lenti said. "She just wasn't on. Historically, Becca has struggled early in the season.
"She wasn't spotting her pitches, and she was leaving others fat for the hitters. We've got to find a way to get her going."
The third-place game on Sunday will be a rematch of a Saturday matchup that saw the Blue Demons defeat North Carolina 4-1 behind the pitching of Lindsey Dean and clutch hitting by Braget, Heteniak and Sean Plese.
NOTES: Despite all the strikeouts, the Blue Demons did get four hits off Luna... Ashkar hit DePaul's first home run of the season while Shea Warren, Braget and Annie Demas all had singles... Heteniak, Warren, Thompson and Lynsey Ciezki each coaxed a walk off the Texas freshman... after four games, Heteniak leads the team with a .500 batting average and has a team-high five hits... Braget is batting .400 with two RBI while Plese is hitting .333... Plese and Ashkar (.273) have three hits apiece... Dean tops the pitching staff with a 1-0 record, 0.64 earned-run average and a .135 opponents' batting average.
