The Spring Hill College Softball Team completed a perfect week at the SIAC Softball Crossover, winning both of its scheduled games today and finishing off an extra-inning victory in a game that carried over from last night to go 3-0 on the day and 7-0 in Gardendale, Ala. this week.
With the victories, the Badgers pushed their overall record to 15-11 and are now 10-0 in SIAC play.
Game 1: Spring Hill 3, Clark Atlanta 2 (F/10)
It took both extra innings and an extra day, but Spring Hill pushed across the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th inning and shut the door on Clark Atlanta in the bottom half of the inning to secure the 3-2 victory.
Bethany Ahrens had pitched eight-and-a-third innings before the game was suspended and returned to the circle when the game continued this afternoon, finishing off what was a masterful performance for the junior. Pitching a 10-inning complete game, Ahrens allowed just two runs on 4 hits and set a new Spring Hill College single-game record with 21 strikeouts. And for good measure, showing just how complete her game is, she went 3-for-5 at the plate, raising her season average to 0.414.
Offense in general came at a premium for the normally hot-hitting Badgers as they totaled just 9 hits on the day, 3 of which belonged to the aforementioned Ahrens.
Meadow Villar was 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBI,
Oscha Carter had an RBI, and
Janci Aube,
Jesslyn Gordon,
Meredith Fontenot, and
Destiny Pierce had the other hits for Spring Hill.
Villar's solo shot in the top of the second got Spring Hill on the board first, but Clark Atlanta answered in the bottom of the third inning with two runs of their own to go up 2-1.
The score remained 2-1 for most of the rest of the regularly scheduled 7-inning game, until the Badgers took to the plate for their last at-bats. Pierce led off the inning with a double and then advanced to third after a well-placed sacrifice bunt by
Amanda Glowacki. Coach
Hannah Fillmore, with Carter at the plate, dialed up the suicide squeeze and both Carter and Pierce executed it perfectly. From the bunt to the base-running, the Badgers pulled it off and tied the game at 2-2, forcing extra innings.
Clark Atlanta had the winning run standing on third base with just one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Ahrens worked out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts to get the momentum back in the Badgers' favor.
Two innings later, in the top of the 10th inning, the stalemate was broken as Spring Hill manufactured the go-ahead run. Aube led off the inning with a single, then advanced to third on a one-out single by Fontenot. That allowed Villar to need any one of a hit or a long out to put the Badgers in front, and a long out is what she delivered as her fly out to center field was deep enough to score Aube and put Spring Hill in front 3-2.
Ahrens then came out and struck out three Clark Atlanta batters to seal the 3-2, come from behind win.
Game 2: Spring Hill 13, Edward Waters 6
The Badgers scored 9 runs in the first three innings, held off a furious rally by Edward Waters, then tacked on another four runs in the final two innings to pull away for the 13-6 victory in their early afternoon game.
It was the usual suspects with standout games at the plate.
Meadow Villar had another two hits, including a deep bomb to right center field, plus four RBI and three runs scored.
Jesslyn Gordon had a double, two RBI, and two runs scored and both
Janci Aube and
Meredith Fontenot had one hit and three walks apiece, with Aube scoring three runs and Fontenot adding two runs and an RBI to her stat line.
Natalee Curry came through as a pinch hitter, hitting a two-RBI single in her lone at-bat.
Belle Sheffield allowed just one earned run on four hits and two walks to earn her first win of the season.
Leighanna Turk was strong in her three innings pitched, allowing just one hit and striking out three to earn the save.
The Badgers had the first five batters reach base, pushing across two runs before the first out was recorded. Villar's two-run single scored Gordon and Aube to put Spring Hill up 2-0. Fontenot scored on a groundout by
McKenzie King to make it 3-0 and then
Destiny Pierce hit a double to left field, plating Villar to make it 4-0 after one.
After Edward Waters scored one run to cut it to 4-1, the Badgers came back with another two runs to make it 6-1. Fontenot drew a two-out walk, bringing up Villar. Villar hit her second home run in as many games, sending it well past the fence and over the spectator hill at Bill Noble Park for her first two RBI of the game. Three more runs in the top of the third, two coming from a Gordon double and another coming from a Fontenot single had the Badgers in the driver's seat, leading 9-1.
Edward Waters scored in the bottom half of the third inning to make it 9-2, then cut further into Spring Hill's lead in the fourth inning, taking advantage of three errors in the inning to score four runs and, suddenly, the Badgers' lead was cut to 9-6.
Turk came in for Sheffield and just about silenced the Edward Waters' bats, thwarting any momentum they had from the fourth inning.
Spring Hill scored two runs in both the sixth and seventh innings, providing insurance coverage for any Edward Waters comeback attempt. Curry delivered a two-out, two RBI single in the sixth to make it 11-6, then in the seventh, Aube scored on a Fontenot groundout and Villar scored on a throwing error to bring it to the 13-6 final score.
Game 3 – Spring Hill 7, Fort Valley State 6
Spring Hill rallied from a 6-4 deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning and
Molly Pitts delivered the walk-off hit to lift the Badgers to victory over Fort Valley State.
The heart of the order was strong for the Badgers as the 2-3-4 hitters,
Jesslyn Gordon,
Meredith Fontenot, and
Meadow Villar had three hits apiece. Gordon and Villar each scored two runs, Villar had three RBI and her second home run of the day, while Fontenot had a single RBI.
Molly Pitts had the last of the RBI to go along with her 1-for-3 day.
Leighanna Turk earned the win, striking out four in the contest and moving her record to 4-0.
Fort Valley State got on the board first to go up 1-0, a rare occurrence for Badgers' opponents while at the SIAC Crossover this week, but Spring Hill answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning to take the 2-1 lead. Gordon scored on a Fontenot groundout, then Villar's solo shot broke the brief tie to make it 2-1.
The Badgers were threatening to break open the game in the bottom of the third inning, following up a leadoff single by Gordon with a pair of bunt singles by Fontenot and Villar to load the bases with no one out and Ahrens up to bat. Ahrens hit the ball hard, but it was right to the third baseman, who only needed to step on third base and fire it to first to get the double play, recording two outs but allowing Gordon to score in the process to put Spring Hill up just 3-1 after three.
The score remained 3-1 until the top of the sixth when Fort Valley State scored two runs to tie the game at 3. The Badgers regained the lead in the bottom of the inning with
Abigail Christ, in as a pinch runner, scored on a wild pitch, but that lead was short-lived as Fort Valley State scored three times in the seventh inning to go up 6-4 and put Spring Hill just 3 outs away from their first defeat at the SIAC Crossover.
Fontenot hit a one-out double to bring the tying run to the dish, who just happened to be the hottest hitter on the team in Villar. With one swing of the bat, a two-run blast over the center field fence, Villar tied the game at 6 and injected life into the Badgers. Ahrens followed up the home run with a single and was replaced by
Natalee Curry as a pinch runner.
McKenzie King flew out to center field, leaving Curry at first with Pitts coming up to bat. Pitts hit a double to left center field, and with Curry off on contact, she raced around the bases and beat the throw home to walk it off for Spring Hill.
After a highly successful SIAC Softball Crossover, the Badgers return home for a double-header against non-conference United States Sports University on Sunday, March 15th. The first game of the double-header is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m.
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