CARROLLTON, Ga. - The Union University Lady Bulldog softball team split with the University of West Georgia Wolves in their first day of conference play. Union won the first game 7-3, but fell the second game 9-7. The Lady Bulldogs are 2-9 on the season, and are 1-1 in Gulf South Conference play. On the season, the Wolves are 7-1, and are 1-1 in league play.
In the first game, the Lady Bulldogs got on the board first. With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the third inning,
Haley Barnette singled through the left side to score
Emily Bennett and
Marley Dyess.
Reagan Schrader then came up and walked to load the bases for the second time in the inning. An error by West Georgia's shortstop allowed
Rachel Ridolfi to score from third, but she recovered to tag out Schrader trying to advance on the play.
West Georgia jumped on the board with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Union's
Paige Taylor gave up two walks with one out, and both runners advanced to third and second with stolen bases. Summer Wallace scored UWG's first run with a RBI ground out to second base. Molly Uhrman scored West Georgia's second run with a single to left field, but the run was unearned due to an error by Union's catcher.
The Lady Bulldogs answered back in the top of the fifth inning. Bennett led off the inning with a walk. The Wolves then brought in Kathryn Woody to relieve starting pitcher Danielle Easterly. Bennett advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from
Summer Cross, and then, Ridofi singled to second base to advance Bennett to third. With runners on first and third, Barnette grounded out to the shortstop, but was able to pick up the RBI with Bennett scoring on the play. Schrader came up next, hitting a ground ball to the third baseman who made an error on the play, allowing
Whitney Christian, pinch runner, to advance to third base.
Madison Tennyson came up with two outs, and busted the game open with a three run homerun over the left-center fence.
Union allowed West Georgia to score one more run, but was able to hold them in the final inning for a final score of 7-3.
Paige Taylor (2-5) led the Lady Bulldogs with 7.0 innings pitched, allowing nine hits, two walks, and two earned runs. Taylor forced 12 ground outs during the game. On the offensive side, Barnette and Tennyson both had three RBIs, and
LaDesha Nelson had a game high two hits. Bennett also added three walks to help her team to the win. The Wolves were led by Uhrman who went 3-3 with two RBIs. Easterly took the loss allowing two hits, seven walks, and four runs.
In the second game of the day, the Lady Bulldogs fell 9-7. West Georgia got things going when Marley Stowers hit a solo homerun over the centerfield fence in the bottom of the first inning. Union got on the board in the top of the fourth inning when Schrader hit a three-run homerun over the centerfield fence with no outs.
Hailey Cummings singled up the middle to score Tennyson and advance Nelson to second. Katie Shultes came in to relieve starting pitcher Stowers for UWG, but the Lady Bulldogs continued their hot hitting when Bennett singled down the leftfield line to score Nelson.
The Wolves retaliated in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring eight runs. Of the eight runs, five runs were unearned due to three errors committed by Union's defense. Down 9-5, the Lady Bulldogs got two runs back in the top of the seventh inning, but was unable to get the come from behind win.
Nelson led the Lady Bulldogs going 2-4 at the plate, and Schrader added three RBIs. Taylor got the hard luck loss going 3.1 innings, giving up eight hits and nine runs, four earned. Cummings came in for relief going 2.2 innings, giving up zero runs on two hits with four strikeouts.
Union will face off with UWG in the rubber game Sunday, February 14 at 12 pm.
#UNION#
