HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana softball team battled to a doubleheader split with Southland Conference foe Central Arkansas Friday evening at North Oak Park.
In the opener, SLU (29-16, 13-7 Southland) extended its winning streak to six games with a 5-3 victory. UCA (24-20, 12-8 Southland) bounced back with a 2-1 pitcher win in a pitcher's duel in the nightcap.
Sophomore
Mattie Ort led the Lady Lions with three RBI in the opener. Senior
Rachel Hayes (12-7) went the distance in the circle, holding UCA to four hits and striking out seven in the complete-game victory.
Neither team could get anything going offensively in the nightcap, as the two teams combined for just nine hits. UCA broke a 1-1 tie with a run in the top of the sixth, sending SLU senior
Lacey Hill (10-5) to a tough-luck loss after she scattered four hits and fanned five in 5.1 innings of work.
The series wraps up at 11 a.m. to open Super Lion Saturday at North Oak Park. Links to live stats and video (LionVision subscription required) are accessible on the softball schedule page at
www.LionSports.net.
Game One – Southeastern Louisiana 5, Central Arkansas 3
Southeastern jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning against UCA freshman starter Rio Sanchez (8-7). After senior
Mahalia Gibson drew a two-out walk, an error by junior Libby Morris allowed SLU junior
Rebecca Skains to reach. Ort followed with a triple into the right centerfield gap to clear the bases. Sophomore
Ali McCoy then singled home Ort to give the Lady Lions an early advantage.
The visiting Bears threatened in their half of the second, as junior Oakley Sisemore tripled to left centerfield with two outs. Hayes recovered to retire sophomore Lauren Brooks to keep UCA off the board.
Senior
Peyton Sutton replaced McCoy on the base paths after the latter led off the bottom of the fourth inning with an infield single. The Slidell, Louisiana native was bunted to second by freshman
Ella Manzer, moved to third on a groundout by senior
Alli Daigle and scored on an RBI single by senior
Kinsey Nichols to push the SLU advantage to 4-0.
UCA finally got to Hayes in the top of the fifth inning. Sisemore singled, stole second, tagged up on a deep fly by sophomore Cylla Hill and scored on a wild pitch. Junior Morgan Felts then hit a two-run home run later in the frame to cut the Southeastern lead to 4-3. After hitting sophomore Kaylyn Shepherd, Hayes recovered to strike out senior Kate Myers to maintain the SLU lead.
Southeastern got a run back in its half of the fifth inning. Junior
Jaquelyn Ramon beat out an infield single, stole second and third, before scoring on an RBI groundout by Ort to put the Lions back up by two, 5-3. SLU had a chance to blow the game open in the bottom of the sixth inning, but left the bases loaded.
UCA freshman Reagan Sperling drew a one-out walk in the top of the seventh inning. However, Hayes forced consecutive pop outs by sophomore Kayla Crutchmer and Felts to secure her 10
th win in the past 12 decisions.
Game Two – Central Arkansas 2, Southeastern Louisiana 1
UCA took the early lead in the top of the first inning. Felts walked to lead off the game and scored one out later on an RBI single by Morris. Hill kept the deficit at one by retiring sophomore Lauren Brooks and striking out Sisemore.
SLU put base runners on in the first two innings, before tying the game in the bottom of the third inning. A Nichols walk and a Ramon single put a pair on with one out. Gibson then laid down a perfect bunt in front of the plate. The speedy Nichols never stopped running from second and scored on the throw down to first to put out Gibson.
Hill and UCA junior Rachel Haberman (7-2) matched zeroes over the next several innings until the Bears finally got to Hill in the top of the sixth inning. Shepherd singled with one out, then scored on a double by Myers to give Central Arkansas a lead it would not relinquish.
In their last trip, Southeastern put the tying run aboard with two hits in the bottom of the seventh inning via an infield single by Nichols. However, Haberman forced junior
Rae'Shaun Malancon to line out to second to even the series.
