March 18, 2000

Box Score

Clearwater, Fla. - Rory Gonzales-Gould won her third-straight game on Saturday as the UIC softball team advanced to the semifinal round of the Clearwater Recreation Tournament with a 7-1 triumph over Canisius.

The 20th-ranked Flames, who earned a first-round bye in the tournament after going 4-0 in pool play, faced a Canisius squad that was playing its third game of the day, having beaten Penn and New Mexico earlier in the afternoon.

The two squads exchanged goose eggs through the first three innings, but in the bottom half of the fourth the Flames broke the game open, plating a trio of runs.

After Edel Leyden opened the frame by grounding out to third base, Stefanie Christoferson started the run with a single to center. Julie Bumgardner then drew a walk to put runners on first and second. Gina Arnold continued her hot hitting of late, driving a double into the right-centerfield gap which scored Christoferson and pushed Amy Gonzales, who pinch ran for Bumgardner, to third. Kathy Casey then executed a perfect suicide squeeze as Gonzales scored and Casey beat the throw to first. Amber Stachura drove in the third run with an RBI groundout.

Those three runs would be all Gonzales-Gould needed as she scattered six Canisius' hits and allowed just one run to cross the plate. The run was unearned, though, as Gonzales-Gould has yet to yield an earned run in her three tournament victories.

The Flames did tack four more on the scoreboard in the sixth inning as a walk, a wild pitch and an error by Canisius second-baseman Racquel Alvarez accounted for three of UIC's runs. Jennifer Tiffany would tab the only RBI of the inning with a single to left.

With the win, UIC improved to 28-15 on the season, and advanced to meet Minnesota tomorrow at 11:00 a.m., with the winner advancing to the Clearwater tournament championship game.