FINAL BOX SCORE

(WASHINGTON, DC)  Playing their final home game of the season, the Lady Bison of Howard University sent their five seniors out on a high note by blanking Bowie State 8-0 in non-conference action.

Howard (17-15) scored three runs on the third inning with Brianne Gutierrez providing the biggest hit at the time, a double to right field scoring Jessica Norwood and Sondra Jones.  A single by Emily Johnson scored Gutierrez, giving the Lady Bison a 3-0 advantage.

Gutierrez increased Howard's lead to 5-0 in the bottom of the second inning, belting a two-run homerun to straight away center field, scoring Christina McCoy on the play.  McCoy, the winning pitcher (9-9) had a no-hitter going at that point.

Sophomore Annette Makle led off the fifth inning with a strikeout but senior Bethany Sloat and freshman Danielle McClay broke up McCoy's no-hitter.  Unfortunately for Bowie State, the Lady Bulldogs were left stranded after seniors Jillian Willey and Erin Gray lined out and popped out respectively.  Howard's Courtney Young led off the bottom half of the fifth with her seventh homerun of the season, increasing the Lady Bison lead to 6-0.

Norwood began the bottom of the sixth inning with a single up the middle.  Jones followed that with a double to center field, scoring Norwood.  Gutierrez singled up the middle of the Bowie State defense, scoring Jones to end the game due to the mercy rule.

Gutierrez paced Howard's Lady Bison with three hits and five RBI.  Johnson and Norwood added three and two hits respectively.  As a team, Howard pounded out 11 hits.

Bowie State closes out their regular season with a 25-12 record and await word on its opponent in next weeks NCAA Division II Regional hosted by Kutztown (PA) University.