Game 1 | Game 2
CLEVELAND, Miss. – The UAM (34-13) softball team split a pair of non-conference games with Delta State this afternoon, 2-1 and 9-4.
Game one took nine innings to find a winner as Kayla Jackson and DSU’s Ashleigh Allgood threw shutouts into the final frame. There were only six hits in the game until the ninth inning, and only one of them went to a Lady Statesmen (23-28).
Things finally got going, offensively, in the top of the ninth. Taylor Russell got on with one out on a single to left center and was pinch run for by Kara House. Sara Matthews was hit by a pitch to put two on with one away. A wild pitch from Allgood moved them both into scoring position, but she recovered to get Brittany Eitel at the plate for the second out.
Maggie Sands broke the tie, however, with the next at-bat, smashing a single to the shortstop that scored both House and Matthews to put the Blossoms up 2-0. Jackson got the leadoff hitter to strike out swinging and fielded a bunt back to the mound to get two quick outs in the bottom half of the inning, but a hit batter and a throwing error allowed DSU to get on the board, 2-1. But a popup back to the mound left the tying run stranded at first.
Delta wasted no time in game two. The Lady Statesmen scored eight runs in the bottom of the first to put the Blossoms in a deep hole from which they never fully emerged. DSU had two homeruns, including a leadoff jolt to start the game and a grand slam before the frame ended.
Haleigh Winnon came in to relieve Katie Slaughter, but gave up two runs of her own in the inning before the Blossoms could come back to the plate. Single runs in the fourth and fifth and a two-run homerun in the seventh from Jackson pulled UAM within five runs, but they could never even out the score.
Kayla Jackson got the win in game one, going all nine innings, allowing just one run on one hit with no walks and seven strikeouts in 31 batters faced. Slaughter took the loss in game two, going 0.1 innings and allowing six runs on four hits with one walk in seven batters faced. Winnon went 5.2 innings in relief with three runs on five hits with two walks.
The Blossoms will return home this weekend for the final series of the season as they look to clinch the number one seed in next week’s GAC Tournament with a four-game series against the Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs. First pitch in Saturday’s double begins at 1 p.m.
