LIVINGSTON, Ala. – The University of West Alabama softball team turned in a pair of wins on the opening day of the 2010 UWA Invitational at the UWA Softball Complex.  The Tigers stormed past Spring Hill College, 5-2 in the opener and blanked the Badgers 3-0 in the second game.
 
UWA moves to 11-3 on the season and will face Kentucky Wesleyan in a pair of games on Sunday, beginning at 1 p.m.   KWC dropped the final game of the day, 9-1 to SHC.
 
The Tigers scored five unanswered runs in the first game after trailing 2-0 after SHC posted its only runs of the contest in the top of the first.  The Red and White answered in its first at bat with a two-run double by Angela Smith.  UWA added a run in the third after Meagan Sloke led off the frame with a double down the left field line; she later scored on a misplayed ball by the Badger infield.  Junior Kelli Hartley picked up an RBI in the third, driving in Jessica Powell, who reached via a walk.  The Northport, Ala.-native added to her RBI total as her ground out pushed Valisha Fincher across the plate for UWA's final run.
 
Junior Katie Ford remained perfect on the season after coming in relief to pick up the win.  The Garden City, Kan.-native tossed three innings and stuck out four and scattered four hits.  Hannah Billingsley started the game and gave up two runs and fanned three.  Jessica Cervantes closed out the game to pick up a save.
 
In the second game, UWA scratched the scoreboard with a run in the first after Powell's two-out double plated Stephanie Beahn, who reached on a SHC miscue.  The Tigers added a pair of insurance runs in the third on Beahn's two-run home run.
 
The three runs would stand up as the UWA hurlers threw a four-hit shutout.  The blanking marks the fifth shutout of the season.  Billingsley earned the win after a four-inning, three strikeout performance.  Ford and Cervantes finished the deal in the final three frames.
 
Live stats of Sunday's twinbill will be available at www.uwaathletics.com.