The Spring Hill softball team wrapped-up Senior Weekend with their second shutout in a row, defeating Kentucky State, 5-0, to complete the three-game sweep. The Badgers moved to 28-20 overall and wrapped-up their SIAC schedule with a 20-2 record, locking-up second place in the SIAC West Division.
Bethany Ahrens and
Emma Sites combined to throw a one-hitter, allowing just four total baserunners over seven innings of play. Ahrens earned the win, holding the Thorobrettes hitless while striking out seven and Sites picked up the save, with a pair of strikeouts over three innings of clean pitching.
The Badgers only had seven hits on the day, and walked just twice, but they strung enough offense together to still score five runs.
McKenzie King and
Belle Sheffield each went 1-for-3 with 2 RBI while
Molly Pitts had the other RBI during her 1-for-3 day.
Janci Aube extended her hit streak to five games, while
Oscha Carter, Natalie Curry, and
Kayla Coley-Drayton each joined her with one hit apiece. Carter led the team with two runs scored.
The game was scoreless through the first two and a half innings, with Spring Hill trying to be aggressive early in the count but not finding the same success as they did in their run-rule, doubleheader sweep yesterday. But in the bottom of the third, the Badgers got to the Kentucky State pitcher and grabbed the lead.
Curry led off the inning with a single, followed by
Destiny Pierce reaching on an error by the first baseman, which also allowed Curry to move to third. Pierce stole second, which paid immediate dividends as Sheffield's single scored both runners to put the Badgers up 2-0. Two batters later, King's single to right brought in Sheffield and put runners on first and second. After
Meadow Villar was hit by a pitch to load the bases,
Molly Pitts beat out the double-play throw to instead reach on a fielder's choice and score Carter from third, giving the Badgers a 4-0 lead after the third inning.
With the effort from the circle that Ahrens and then Sites were giving, those runs were more than enough, but the Badgers added one more in the bottom of the fifth to make it 5-0. The inning started with an Aube single, and then a hit and run executed by Carter and Aube put runners on the corner. Spring Hill attempted the double steal, running it successfully against Kentucky State yesterday, but this time the Thorobrettes were ready and caught Aube at home. Carter stole third and then came in on King's ground out for the Badgers' fifth run.
From there, Sites and the Badger defense kept Kentucky State quiet, closing out their 20th SIAC victory of the season.
Spring Hill has a pair of non-conference doubleheaders this week before heading to the 2026 SIAC Softball Championship next Monday. Next up for the Badgers is a home set against the University of Mobile with the first of two games set to start at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21st.
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