Freshmen Kim Jeffs (Stoughton, Mass.) continued to shatter Plymouth State College’s softball pitching records Wednesday, leading the Panthers to a pair of 1-0 victories over Fitchburg State College in a non-conference doubleheader at D & M Park.
Jeffs went the distance in both ends of the doubleheader, allowing only one hit in each game to improve her record to 9-2 and lower her earned run average to 0.23. She posted her sixth and seventh shutouts of the year, breaking the PSC single-season record and tying the career mark for shutouts by a pitcher. Jeffs took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of the opener before allowing a two-out double to
Lindsay Martins (New Bedford, Mass.), and into the third inning of the nightcap before surrendering a double to Krystal Souza (New Bedford, Mass.).
In addition, Jeffs continued striking out batters at a record-breaking pace.† She fanned a school-record 20 Falcons in the first game (out of 24 outs) and added 10 more in nightcap. Jeffs, who has walked only three batters this season, now has 160 strikeouts, breaking the PSC career mark of 148 previously held by Jen Moulton from 1997-00.
Plymouth State managed only six hits in the doubleheader, but pushed across single runs in each game to pull out the win. In the eighth inning of the first game, Jeffs was placed at second base via the tiebreaker rule, went to third on a sacrifice bunt, and scored the game-winning run on an infield error. In the sixth inning of the nightcap, junior
Adriene Harvey (Nantucket, Mass.) led off with a double to left, and came around to score on a pair of infield groundouts.
The wins improve PSC to 12-4-2 overall, while the Falcons drop to 10-8.
PSC is back in action Saturday with a key Little East Conference doubleheader at Western Connecticut (1:00 p.m.).† The Colonials are the defending conference regular season and tournament champions. Fitchburg returns home to host Rivier College on Thursday (5:00 p.m.).