COLUMBUS, Miss. – The W softball squad extended its win streak to four games by sweeping Saturday's games at The W Invitational round-robin tournament, 5-1 over Covenant College and 7-6 over Sewanee in nine innings. The Owls improved to 4-2 on the young 2026 season.
In its first game of the day versus Covenant, MUW utilized a four-run fourth to break open what was a 1-1 tie and cruise to the win behind the arm of
Brooklyn Rhodes (2-1). Rhodes gave up just one run in the top of the fourth, scattered five hits, struck out five Scots, and walked just one.
MUW struck first with a sacrifice fly by
Madison York in the first that plated
Gillion Eaves with the games first run.
Then in the home half of the fourth, an RBI double down the left-field line by
Avery Johnston knocked in
Lynnzie Kennedy with what would end up being th game-deciding RBI. A two-run triple by York and an RBI single by
Addison Owen (1-3) made the score 5-1.
The Owls Nos. 1-4 batters – Eaves (2-4), York (2-2), Owen (3-4), and Rhodes (1-2) – collected eight of the squad's nine collective hits in the game, as well as four of the runs batted in.
The second game of the day with Sewanee, saw the "cardiac Owls" stage an amazing comeback from the brink of defeat in nine innings.
The game was tied at 1-1 in the top of the sixth when the first of MUW's pacemaker-testing moments occurred, this one on defense. Sewanee had runners on first and second, when Abby Buckner singled to right. Reagan Huskey rounded third and headed home, but MUW's Eaves fired a perfect strike to catcher
MC Brown – who also stars in volleyball at The W – to spike Huskey at home and preserve the tie.
Brianna Byrd's (2-4) RBI single in the bottom of the sixth gave The W a brief lead. The Tigers sent the game to extra innings by tallying a run of their own in the top of the seventh to make it 2-2. With the placed runner in the eighth, both teams manufactured a run and sent the contest to the ninth.
Sewanee's first three batters went single, triple, single to push across three runs before the Owls could even record an out. Reliever
Rachel Etheridge retired the next three batters in order, but now MUW was staring at a 6-3 deficit.
Speedster
Lilly Harrison was MUW's placed runner. With Brown at bat, a pair of wild pitches brought Harrison home with the bat still on Brown's shoulder, 6-4. Brown and Johnston drew back-to-back walks and, suddenly, The W was in business with the tying runs on base and no one out.
After a Tigers' pitching change,
Chloe McClain (1-4) stepped into the batter's box and promptly roped a double to the right-center field gap. Brown and Johnston scored to make it a 6-6 game.
Trinity Garvin (1-3) walked and an alert McClain – realizing Sewanee wasn't paying attention to her after the free pass to Garvin, stole third base. With Eaves (2-5) batting, Garvin took second on defensive indifference, but removing a chance for a force out. Eaves then popped up to the pitcher for the first out.
That brought up York, who was 0-for-4 in the game. York smacked a roller toward Huskey at shortstop, with McClain breaking for home. Huskey had no chance to get McClain, who slid across with the winning run and had the Owls' celebrating the best 0-for-5 game ever after the game-winning fielder's choice by York.
Etheridge (1-0) got the win with one inning of scoreless relief. Garvin, who made her first collegiate start in the game gave a solid performance with 5.2 innings pitched, seven hits allowed and just one unearned run against her.
