MONTICELLO – The University of Arkansas at Monticello softball team recorded two close Gulf South Conference wins over Christian Brothers on Thursday by final scores of 3-0 and 11-7.
 
The first game was highlighted by the pitching dominance of sophomore starter Kayla Jackson (18-3), who only allowed two hits to record her 19th complete game and eighth shutout of the 2010 season. She added five strikeouts to her totals and did not allow a walk in seven innings.
 
Jackson threw three perfect innings and held the Lady Bucs (14-18, 4-10 GSC-West) to only one scoring opportunity.
 
Offensively, the Cotton Blossoms (35-6, 12-2 GSC-West) scored all three of their runs in the bottom of the third inning on a two-run homerun by junior Sarah Hayslip and an RBI single by sophomore Meagan Wilson later in the inning.
 
Senior Emilie Hobbs and Jackson tied for the team-high in hits with two each. Hobbs went 2-for-4 and added a stolen base, while Jackson went 2-for-3, highlighted by a double to right center to lead off the third.
 
In the second game, the two squads went back-and-forth over the first two innings, each team scoring one run each frame. After a scoreless third, the Lady Bucs went up 3-2 on an RBI single by Kathleen Nelson in the top of the fourth.
 
The UAM bats came alive in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by a two-RBI triple by Hobbs and an RBI single by Jackson to give the Cotton Blossoms a 5-4 lead.
 
CBU took advantage of a throwing error by Hobbs in the fifth to plate a run in the form of Kaylea Brewer, who led off the inning with a double to center.
 
The Cotton Blossoms failed to score in the fifth, but held CBU scoreless in the sixth, while picking up six runs in the bottom half of the inning, highlighted by a solo-homerun from Hayslip, her second of the day and ninth of the season. The other big blow in the inning was senior Bethany Falcon’s two-RBI single to center to give UAM an 11-4 lead.
 
The Lady Bucs rallied in the top of the seventh to score three runs, but UAM’s six-run sixth created a deficit too large to allow a comeback.
 
Sophomore Amanda Nordberg (14-1) was credited with the win after allowing seven runs (three earned) off 13 hits with three strikeouts and only one walk in six and two-thirds innings of work. Sophomore Randa Perry picked up her first save of the season after entering the game with the bases loaded and the tying run on-deck. Perry allowed one hit, but induced a 1-3 groundout to end the game.
 
Hobbs led the team offensively after going 3-for-5 at the plate with three RBI and two runs scored. She also picked up her second and third stolen bases of the double-header to increase her UAM career record to 50 stolen bases (24-of-29 this season).
 
The four-game series is set to conclude tomorrow (Friday) with a double-header, starting at 1 p.m. at Blossoms Field. Friday’s double-header will be the last games to be played at Blossoms Field for four UAM seniors (Bethany Falcon, Emilie Hobbs, Kayla Temple and Becca Tipton). There will be a special presentation set to get underway at approximately 12:30 p.m.