Charleston Southern softball knocked off Notre Dame on Friday morning to begin their time in Florida at UCF's SpaceU Classic. The Bucs took down the Irish by a final score of 5-4 to be the first time they have won over a Power 5 opponent since Virginia in 2022.
Notre Dame was the first to get on the scoreboard, using an RBI single in the second and an RBI triple in the third. This pushed them out to an early 2-0 lead.
In the fourth, Charleston Southern scratched their first across home plate with Emily Chandler moving the runners up a base on a groundout that allowed Jordyn Dimond to score from third.
The Irish pushed their lead back out to two in the bottom half of the frame off a RBI single to place the score at 3-1.
In the fifth, the Bucs picked up right where they left off. Dimond had a single to left field that scored Cadence Walding and Maddie Lee who were each in scoring position to tie the game. Later in the inning, Emma Smith single to center to score Dimond and give them their first lead of the day. Charlee Yourman then laced a single to centerfield to bring Carsten Sandvig home and put them ahead at 5-3.
Notre Dame continued to try to pluck away and with an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh, they cut their deficit down to 5-4 and had the tying run on third with two outs. However, they were able to force the Irish's batter into a flyout to left field to end the game.
As a team, Charleston Southern posted nine hits with Smith leading the squad with three. Dimond and Yourman also had multiple as they finished with two. Dimond scored twice and drove in a pair to lead the team in each category as well. Kingsmore and Dimond both stole a pair of bases in the contest to continue their hot start on the basepaths.
Riley Lauffer had the start and threw a complete game, going for all seven innings. In the start, she struck out just one batter and allowed nine hits, four walks and four earned runs, working out of jams in nearly every inning and keeping the Notre Dame hitters at bay.