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Box Score 2 DURANT, Okla. –
Mindy McElroy collected a win and a save in 10 innings of work over two games, helping No. 2 Southeastern sweep a Friday double-header from Southern Arkansas, taking game one 5-1 before winning the nightcap 4-2.
The wins lift the Savage Storm to 17-4 on the season with a 2-0 start to the Great American Conference season.
The teams will play complete the four-game series on Saturday with a double-header slated for 11 a.m. at the Southeastern Softball Field.
McElroy was busy on the afternoon, coming on in relief in the opener and tossing three hitless innings to earn the save, before getting the start in game two and going the full seven innings, allowing a pair of unearned runs on four hits. She struck out five over two games.
McElroy moved to 5-1 on the season with four saves and lowered her ERA to 1.77 on the year.
Bennett got the start in game one and pushed her record to 11-2 on the season after allowing an unearned run on three hits with six strikeouts in four innings of work.
Offensively in game one,
Laramie Beal came up big with a 2-for-2 outing that included a home runs and a double, finishing the contest with three RBI.
The Storm finished with eight hits as a team with
Lauren Renneker picking up the only other RBI as a pinch hitter.
A Beal double put SE on the board in the second inning when she plated
Kaija Morris.
The Muleriders answered with a run in the top of the fourth to tie the game, but Beal would respond in the bottom of the fourth with a two-run home that also scored a pinch-running
Dakota Palmer to make the lead 3-1.
Kelsey Overacker would help bring home another run in the sixth with a double that allowed McElroy to score from first when the left fielder misplayed the ball.
Renneker would follow that with an RBI single to push the lead to 5-1 which would hold to be the final.
Jessica Simmons turned in a pair of hits in game two with a pair of runs scored and a stolen base that pushed her GAC best total to 16 on the season.
Lacie Cook also turned in a two-hit outing, while Beal,
Courtney Moore and McElroy each had an RBI.
The Storm got on the board in the first when Cook singled on a bunt that moved Simmons from second to third, but she was able to score when the pitcher overthrow first base.
McElroy would double in the fourth inning to score Palmer and give SE a 2-0 lead.
Brittany Wilson, pinch running for Renneker, would score in the fifth when Beal grounded out to second base with the bases loaded and the next batter would push the lead to 4-0 as Moore flied out to right field, allowing Simmons to score on the sac fly.
SAU would make things interesting in the seventh, loading the bases with one out and getting on the scoreboard when Mackenzie Spanko singled home Courtney Johnson.
With the bases still loaded, Kelsey Fisher hit a grounder to Morris at third base who stepped on third to get the first out and threw across the diamond in an attempt to get the double play, but the throw was not in time.
The lead runner had scored to make the score 4-2, but in the confusion that followed, the runner who had been forced out at third continued to run the bases and headed to the plate. Renneker then threw the ball to the plate where Moore applied the tag and the third out was signaled by the home plate umpire.
After the umpires conferenced, they had determined that there were just two outs and sent the Muleriders runners to first and second as they had been when the final out was signaled at the plate.
SAU sent a pinch hitter to the plate, but she would have little time to work as Moore would pick off Spanko who was at second base for the final out of the game, preserving a 4-2 win.
