ELON, N.C. -- Jordan Gontram and Makenna Matthijs hit two home runs apiece, and the red-hot UNC Greensboro (UNCG) softball team homered six times in all on the way to a 13-3 victory over host Elon at Hunt Softball Park on Wednesday evening.
 
Gontram, a redshirt junior from Wake Forest, homered twice in the top of the seventh inning when the Spartans flexed their offensive muscles and hit five of their home runs to blow open a close game, roughing up Elon relievers Kaitlin King and Alexa Nemeth.
 
UNCG tied the NCAA record (all divisions) for home runs in an inning with five in the explosive seventh. Eight other schools, including Oklahoma which accomplished the same feat earlier this year, share the record. The last time UNCG hit at least 6 homers in a game was against Appalachian State on April 26, 2014.
 
It was the eighth consecutive victory for UNCG (8-4 overall).
 
Gontram hit her team-leading sixth and seventh home runs of the season as UNCG batted around in the seventh inning. She leads the Spartans with 16 RBIs, and eight of her 10 hits this season have gone for extra bases. Gontram now has 32 career home runs, moving past Nicole Thomas and into a tie with Kaitlin Merkt for sixth on UNCG's all-time list. This is the third time in her career that Gontram has hit two homers in a game. She did it agaisnt Campbell (April 25, 2018) and Samford (May 5, 2018).
 
Matthijs, the second batter of the game, hit a towering home run to straightaway center in the first inning to give UNCG a lead it never relinquished. She added a two-run shot to left in the seventh and finished 3-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs, raising her season average to .405.
 
Katie Stettler and Samantha Lagrama both hit two-out, two-run homers in the seventh inning for UNCG. Stettler, the ninth hitter in the Spartans' lineup, finished 2-for-4 with four RBIs as her two-out, two-run single to the opposite field in the second inning helped stake UNCG to a 4-0 lead.
 
Jasmine Palmer, the Southern Conference player of the week, went 3-for-3 with a walk and a run scored to raise her batting average to .438 and her on-base percentage to .550. She has not struck out in 40 plate appearances so far this season.
 
UNCG sophomore right-hander Morgan Scott (3-2), the SoCon pitcher of the week, worked a complete game. She lost her shutout bid in the sixth inning, but finished with two walks and six strikeouts in seven strong innings, lowering her ERA to 3.69.
 
Scott gave up Grace Kiser's three-run home run on an 0-2 pitch in the sixth, a line drive over the fence in left.
 
Elon starter McKenzie Weber (0-2) gave up five runs in five innings to take the loss. UNCG hit four home runs off King and a fifth off Nemeth in the seventh-inning outburst.
 
The Spartans came into the game 24th in the nation with a .327 team batting average, then went 13-for-35 against Elon to raise that figure to .332.
 
UNCG has averaged 10.2 runs during its eight-game winning streak, and the Spartans have hit at least four home runs in three games this season. They're averaging 2.08 home runs per game. Only eight teams in the nation are averaging two or more HRs per game.
 
Spartans cleanup hitter Kayleigh Willis, who reached on an error in the fifth inning, has been on base at least once in all of UNCG's games so far this season.
 
UNCG returns home to host the College of Charleston in a three-game series this weekend. The Spartans and Cougars play a single game at 4 p.m. Friday, then play a doubleheader at noon Saturday.