COLUMBUS, Miss. - The W softball picked up a crucial St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) split versus high-flying Greenville University at Don Usher Field. The Owls (15-11, 5-1 SLIAC) dropped the opener, 2-0, versus the Panthers (22-2, 7-1 SLIAC) before bouncing back to take the second game of the afternoon, 6-4.
Game one was a great pitcher's duel between GU's Melissa Bernal (9-0) and MUW freshman
Brooklyn Rhodes (6-2). The duo occupies the Nos. 1 and 4 slots, respectively, for the SLIAC ERA leaders.
Rhodes went 5.0 innings and gave up 5 hits and the two earned runs. She had four strikeouts and did not walk a batter.
Bailey McClellan threw the final 2.0 scoreless innings, giving up just one hit and striking out for of the seven batters she faced.
As might be expected, the game was completed in a tidy 1 hour and 17 minutes, with the Panthers manufacturing single runs in the second and fifth frames off of Rhodes. The W had runners in scoring position in the first, sixth, and seventh innings, but came away empty each time.
GU outhit the Owls by a 6-4 margin. MUW's hits came from
Emilee Slade (1-3),
Anna Sandlin (1-3),
Maiya Joe (1-3), and
Chloe McClain (1-3). Sandlin's hit was a one-out double in the bottom of the first inning.
The second game saw Greenville tally a first inning run, only to have the Owls put two on the board in their half of the third on a wild pitch and a passed ball. The W carried the precarious 2-1 led into the bottom of the fourth.
Joe and
Kaitlyn Bearley drew back-to-back walks to open the inning and were sacrificed into scoring position by
Taylor Palmer. That brought McClain to the plate.
McClain jumped all over the offering from the Panthers' Destiny Dunlap, depositing the ball well over the leftfield fence or a three-run home run, her first as an Owl. McClain's blast gave MUW a 5-1 advantage, and a cushion they would need.
Owls' starter
Avery Byerley gave up three-consecutive singles, before being lifted and replaced by
Baylee McWilliams and the score at 5-2. But McWilliams was tagged for back-to-back singles that made the score 5-4 and got a call to the bullpen for McClellan. McClellan got the final three outs to preserve MUW's slim lead.
An RBI single from Bearley in the home half of the fifth gave The W some insurance, 6-4. Meanwhile, McClellan would finish with 3.0 frames of hitless and scoreless relief to earn her second save of the year and hand the Panthers their first SLIAC setback of 2025.
The Owls' first three batters – Slade, Sandlin, and Rylie Phillips - all had identical 2-for-4 lines and each scoring a run. Bearley was 2-for-2 with an RBI. McClain was also 2-for-2 with the three RBI to her credit.
The W will host Fontbonne University on Sunday (April 13) for a SLIAC Sunday matinee beginning at 12 p.m. at Usher Field.
