CLINTON, Miss. – A home run by Cheyenne Mathews in the bottom of the sixth inning lifted Mississippi College to a 5-4 victory over West Alabama in game three of the Gulf South Conference Softball series on Sunday.
Mississippi College completes the series sweep to improve to 11-8 overall and 3-6 in the GSC. West Alabama falls to 7-11 and 0-8 on a six game losing skid.
"All the way around, the defensive production was more of what we're used to," said UWA head coach
Will Atkinson.
"We gave ourselves a chance to win, but they ran into one that gets up into the jet stream and gets sucked out of here to give them the lead. Overall, we had a much better day today. I hate losing, but there was a lot of growth today. There were things you won't see on the stat sheet that were big improvements from yesterday."
The Tigers claimed their first lead of the series in the top of the first as
Brittany Anderson scored on a sacrifice by
Libby Davis. Down 2-1 in the second inning, UWA regained the lead with three more runs.
Ashlend Rodriguez brought in two runs on a single, later scoring on a Choctaw error.
Mississippi College chipped away at the lead with runs in the bottom of the third and fourth, setting up Mathews' game winner. Katherine Lee led the Choctaws, turning two walks into two runs. Alexia Harmon finished 2-for-3 with two RBI.
Ashley Smart and
Audrey Diekmann each led UWA with two hits.
Carlie Sargent (5-3) picked up her second win of the series, striking out six batters and allowing two earned runs on seven hits through seven innings.
Amanda Medders (2-5) took the loss, giving up five earned runs on six hits through six innings.
"We came out today, and wanted to put pressure on their defense," Atkinson said.
"We were able to put the ball in play. We used the short game a little bit, stole a few bases and made them make mistakes early. At the end of the day, we had a couple opportunities where one swing of the bat could have changed the outcome. We're continuing to grow and I look forward to seeing them midweek this week."
West Alabama Softball will return home to host Montevallo in a double-header on Tuesday. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 3 p.m.
