No. 9 Softball Blasts Bethel in Sweep

McKenzie, Tenn.- The softball team, ranked No. 9 in the NAIA, returned to the road for a doubleheader on Saturday. The team traveled to face the Bethel University Lady Wildcats.

Game One:

TWU scored the first runs of the game in the second inning. Mackenzie Baldwin, after getting on base via a walk, scored off a Kaley Bradley double. Bradley scored on the next at-bat, a Hallie DeArman single to give the team a 2-0 lead. Bethel cut the lead to one run in the third inning.

The game changed in the fourth inning. Loryn Sherwood opened the inning with a walk, moving to second on a Baldwin single. A single by Bradley moved Sherwood to third but Baldwin was forced out at second. The bases became loaded on a DeArman walk. Caroline Moore unloaded two of the bases with a single with Sherwood and Bradley both scoring to move the lead to 4-1. Destiny Painter continued the scoring with her double, bringing both DeArman and Moore across home plate to make the score read 6-1. A run in the seventh inning, scored by Emma Clevinger off Bradley's single, led the team to a 7-1 win in game one.

Painter, Bradley, and Moore all finished the game with two RBIs while DeArman had one RBI. Cheyenne Strong pitched six innings in the win, striking out 10 batters. Emily Tabor pitched an inning of relief and struck out a batter.

Game Two:

The bats stayed hot for the Lady Bulldogs in the second game as the team plated nine runs in the first inning. Painter and Emily Mikkola opened the game with singles. Painter scored on a Malyssa Jeter single while Mikkola scored on a Baldwin single. DeArman made the score 4-0 with her single scoring both Jeter and Baldwin. Back-to-back errors on Bradley and Moore at-bats loaded the bases, and the bases remained loaded after a Painter scored DeArman with a single. Mikkola brought the score to 7-0 with a double scoring Bradley and Moore. Courtney Sneed added two more runs before the inning ended with a single that scored both Painter and Mikkola, giving the team a 9-0 lead. The opponents scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Two home runs in the second inning added two more runs to Tennessee Wesleyan's lead. Jeter began the inning with a solo shot to move the lead to 10-2. DeArman blasted a solo shot to move the lead to nine runs with the scoreboard reading 11-2. Four more runs occurred in the third inning.

Sneed opened the inning with a walk and was followed by a Sherwood single which advanced her to third. Jeter recorded her third RBI of the game when Sneed scored on her single. The bases became loaded on a Baldwin walk and DeArman kept the bases loaded with a second walk, scoring Sherwood to extend the lead to 12 runs. Bradley singled to score Jeter, making the score read 15-2, the final score of the game ending in a mercy-ruled five innings.

Jeter and DeArman both finished with a home run in the game and three RBIs. Mikkola and Sneed added two RBIs while Painter, Baldwin, and Bradley had one RBI hit. The team had 17 hits in the game. On the mound, Baylie Davis picked up the win, striking out six batters in five innings.

TWU (3-1) stay on the road when they face No. 14 Georgia Gwinnett College on Saturday. The first game of the doubleheader is set to begin at 2:00 p.m.