CLINTON, S.C. – Less than 24 hours after equaling the 2011 team's 7-0 opening (a feat that tied the school's D-I best to start a season) with consecutive defensive-minded victories, the Presbyterian College softball squad took things one step further on Sunday afternoon from their home turf in a 1-0 grinder over Appalachian State, bringing themselves one win away from establishing a new record in the 25-year history of the program.

Only the 2007 edition of the Blue Hose – the final team affiliated at the D-II level before making the jump in the next year – has progressed through its first eight games in a season without taking a single loss along the way. However, a major difference between the PC of today and the PC of 16 years ago lies in the fact that the '23 pitching staff has already produced five shutouts on its rampaging path to perfection through two weeks, blanking their second adversary in a row on Sunday behind the brilliance of senior Jenna Greene as the ring-leader.

Ensuring that her final stretch under head coach David Williams' tutelage will be one to remember, Greene sent 10 App State batters back to the dugout with a K (the 20^th time in her acclaimed career distributing a double-digit number of strikeouts), forcing the Mountaineers into 11 stranded runners on a sunny weekend closer.

The North Carolinian has gone the full seven frames in all four of her starts this year, recording a ridiculous 0.50 ERA in over 100 at-bats. Spanning exactly half of Presbyterian's win total, opponents have only mustered a .184 batting average when going against Greene, which has translated to a combined difference of 16-3 on the scoreboard in the 28 frames that she has thrown.
 
NOTABLES
- Manning the centerfield spot in all of PC's victories this year, true freshman Gracie DeCuir has steadily risen to the second-highest BA on the Blue Hose roster (.412) in 17 plate appearances, ramping up that figure significantly thanks to a 3-of-3 effort versus the Mountaineers at the bottom of the order.

- Tallying a trio of base hits in a breakout performance, the newbie sprinted home on the lone run of the outing after Morgan Hess nailed an RBI-double in the bottom of the 5^th, before later snaring arguably a game-saving catch for the first out of the final frame – a play that necessitated an extension mere feet away from the fence that kept the deficit at 1-0.

- Along with Hess' game-winning swing to bring DeCuir around the diamond (her fifth RBI of the season to match catcher Lath Freeman for the highest figure on the team), Presbyterian was able to reach seven hits past Mountaineer twirler Kapri Toone who was saddled with the losing effort, albeit a valiant one.

- Despite hitting some trouble early in a handful of innings, Greene's Houdini imitation resonated nicely with the Blue Hose faithful who witnessed the senior escape four separate stanzas where Appalachian State had at least one runner in scoring position, including three straight frames at the contest's midway point where two players were left deserted.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- It may not have been the prettiest offensive showing by PC, although the expert level defense exhibited from the all-white uniforms carried the load in yet another outing where the other side was left continually searching for answers to no avail.

- The visitors from Boone found many instances where a breakthrough would have been possible had it not been for Greene's stellar work and the rest of the Blue Hose D backing up said effort, completing their fourth game of the year without an error at any point, a stat that would have been costly in a one-run final had any of those plays gone awry.

- Greene wrapped up her third shutout of the campaign with a pitch count that neared 150 on Sunday, becoming the first ever Presbyterian hurler to blank the opposition in 20 separate matchups (already the school record holder in that department, the next-closest entry being nine shutouts behind her).

- Win #42 in the senior's tenure granted Williams his 21^st one-run victory since taking over the reigns in 2019 and his second eight-game win streak or higher in the past 12 months. Greene now sits just 12 K's away from earning the distinction of being the very first PC pitcher to strike out 500 batters overall.
 
UP NEXT:
- All of a sudden, 80% of Presbyterian's season-starting 10-game home stretch has passed, leaving the Blue Hose with two more affairs in Clinton before they hit the road for the first time next weekend. A doubleheader versus Western Carolina will be the follow-up date for a PC squad on the doorstep of another historical achievement.

- The Catamounts will roll into the PC Softball Complex with a vastly-smaller body of work than Williams and co., gaining back-to-back 1-0 wins over Tennessee Tech and Alabama State as their only two appearances to this point. Weather-related cancellations will bring WCU to Clinton this Wednesday with 12 days in between their last game, trailing 13-10 to Presbyterian in the all-time series history dating back to 2008.

- Round one of the Feb. 22 DH will have a 1:00 opening toss, before turning around for a 3:00 carry-over immediately thereafter.