COLUMBUS, Miss. – The W softball team combined great pitching and timely hitting to produce a sweep over Westminster College in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) opener for both teams at Don Usher Field. The Owls (7-10, 2-0 SLIAC) won by scores of 3-0 and 8-5 over the Blue Jays (5-14, 0-2 SLIAC).
In game one, freshman pitcher
Trinity Garvin (2-2) was masterful in picking up her first collegiate shutout versus WC. Garvin, in her 7.0 innings of work, permitted just two singles with her second complete game of the year. She struck out two and did not walk a batter.
Westminster's Madison Plybon matched Garvin, scattering just three hits by MUW over the first five frames of scoreless softball. But in the sixth, The W erupted for all three of its runs.
Owls' first-baseman
Kaylee Crawford was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, with
Lynnzie Kennedy doing the pinch running. Designated player
Brooklyn Rhodes (1-3) then hit the first pitch she saw for a triple to right that plated Kennedy with what would be the deciding run.
But MUW added some insurance. Garvin (1-3) helped her own cause with an RBI single that scored Rhodes, and that was followed by an RBI single from catcher
MC Brown (2-3) to make it the 3-0 final score.
In the second game, the Blue Jays jumped on MUW starter
Phallyn Clark for three runs in the top of the first. But The W came back with a pair of runs in their half of the opening inning, thanks to an RBI single by Crawford (1-3) and run scoring double by Rhodes (3-4), 3-2. Westminster chased Clark with two more runs in the top of the third, taking a 5-2 lead.
Of Clark's five runs allowed, just one was earned. She struck out two and did not walk a batter, before giving way to Rhodes (3-4) to finish the game, and eventually get the win, with 4.0 innings of one-hit, no run relief. Rhodes struck out five Jays' batters.
MUW got a run back in the sixth. Kennedy (1-3) laced an RBI single that drove home Garvin (3-4) to make it 5-3 and set the stage for the Owls seventh-inning comeback.
In the final frame,
Addison Owen (2-4) had a one-out single, followed by a four-pitch walk to Crawford. With
Kaitlyn Bearley running for Crawford at first, a Rhodes single loaded the bases for Garvin. Garvin smacked a two-run single that drove in Owen and Bearley, to knot the game at 5-5 and still one out.
That brought senior catcher Brown (1-3) to the plate for the Owls. Brown worked the count to 3-1 and then, on the fifth pitch of the at-bat, slugged the ball over the left-center field fence for a three-run, walk-off home run.
It was the first homer of Brown's collegiate softball career and completed the Owls' sweep of the Blue Jays
"Honestly all I have to say is this was a great way to come out of 'retirement'," Brown said "After a six-ish year break (from playing softball until this season), my first collegiate home run being a walk off for the sweep of our first conference weekend felt pretty cool. That one swing meant nothing if it wouldn't have been for every single person in the lineup doing their job, especially in that last inning. I'm proud of this team."
