COLUMBUS, Miss. – Mississippi University for Women baseball split its Saturday doubleheader versus Greenville University – winning 5-3 in game one and dropping game two, 17-7 – at Heritage Academy. The Owls (5-8) won the series against the Panthers (3-6), two games to one.
In the first game of the day, The W junior righthander
Kirby Ross (Tupelo, Miss.) earned his first win of the year. Ross went 7.0 innings, allowing eight hits and three earned runs during his stint. He struck out six Panthers and walked just two.
In the bottom of the third, MUW broke the scoreless deadlock when centerfielder
Joel Estabrook laced an RBI double, driving home
Tanner Evans. The Owls added an unearned run on an error by GU's thirdbaseman to up the lead, 2-0.
The two teams put on a bit of a "muscle show" in the sixth. In the top of the inning, the Panthers got a solo lead-off home run to cut their deficit to 2-1. But in the bottom of the frame, The W got back-to-back solo homers from
Blake Estabrook and
Dane Bevell on its first two at-bats to make it 4-1.
Greenville slugged a two-run home run in its half of the eighth to make the score an uncomfortable 4-3, before
Tanner Evans came on in relief to shut down the threat. The Owls got a run back in their half of the inning, thanks to an RBI single off the bat of
Bret Linton.
All that remained was for Evans to close out the ninth and earn his first save of the season, securing the 5-3 victory.
Blake Estabrook, Bevell and Linton – batting in the Nos. 5-7 slots – each had a pair of hits out of the eight total managed by The W team.
In game two, The W flexed in the first two innings, belting four home runs in the span. With two out in the bottom of the first, after GU put up a pair of runs, Evans lifted a solo blast inside the leftfield foul pole.
Joel and
Blake Estabrook then slapped back-to-back singles, bringing up catcher
Avery Benson. Benson crushed a no-doubt homer off the rightfield scoreboard to give the Owls a 6-2 lead.
The Panthers got a three-spot in the top of the third. But The W got one back on an RBI single from
Landon Clark in the bottom of the third, making it 7-5. Unfortunately for host MUW, it would be the last of its offense for the game (nine of The W's 13 hits came in the first three frames).
Greenville, meanwhile, went on a scoring spree. The Panthers would plate 12-unanswered runs over the next four innings to end the contest on the 10-run rule, 17-7.
The bottom half of the Owls' lineup did the bulk of the damage. The Nos. 5-9 spots had 10 of the team's 13 total hits.
Blake Estabrook, Benson.,
Ryan Smith, Clark and
CJ Wise each had a pair of hits – and scored a run - for the quintet. Benson had three RBI and Clark two ribbies in the loss.
