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DURANT, Okla. – No. 5 Southeastern outscored Ouachita Baptist 14-1 over two games and polished off a series sweep on Senior Day with wins of 9-1 and 5-0 on Saturday afternoon at the Southeastern Softball Field.
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 36-7 overall on the season and 21-3 in Great American Conference play while extending its season-long win streak to nine games.
SE has one final GAC series to play when it travels to Alva, Okla., to face Northwestern Oklahoma State April 19-20 with a chance to lock up a regular-season conference championship if it wins at least two games.
The Storm combined hitting and pitching top pick up a 9-1 run-rule win in six innings in the opener which was highlighted by
Jacee Bennett carrying a no-hitter into the sixth inning before allowing a hit with two outs.
Bennett finished with six innings pitched and allowed one unearned run on one hit with 10 strikeouts. She faced three over the minimum in the contest as she became the first player in the GAC to pick up her 20
th win.
The offense came primarily off the bat of
Laramie Beal who posted a grand slam and a three –run double to finish with seven RBI in the game. That is a GAC record and she became the first player since Amanda Tanner on Feb. 19, 2010, to post that many RBI in a game.
Beal finished the first game 2-for-3, with
Courtney Riddle and
Courtney Moore each tallied two hit outings as well, while
Lacie Cook,
Darrian Williams,
Jacee Bennett and
Paige Priest each added a hit.
Riddle and
Whitney Hamilton each added an RBI to go with Beal's seven.
Beal wasted little time putting her team on the board by emptying the bases in the bottom of the first inning with a double over the left fielder's head that scored Moore, Riddle and Williams to take a 3-0 lead.
After walking the leadoff batter of the contest, Bennett would strikeout five-straight and retired the next six batters total before putting the leadoff hitter on with a hit-by-pitch to open the third inning.
That was followed by a walk before Bennett's throw to first in an attempt to get the final out of the inning was off the mark allowing an unearned run to come home despite not allowing a hit.
She would settle down after that and sit down the next eight hitters in-a-row before surrendering her only hit with two outs in the top of the sixth inning.
The fifth inning was when the Storm broke open the offense, scoring five runs with two outs in the inning.
It started with a Hamilton bases loaded walk that made the score 4-1.
One batter later Beal would double the Storm run total with a homer to center field on the first pitch of her at bat that plated
Kaija Morris,
Dakota Palmer and Riddle ahead of herself to take an 8-1 lead.
Riddle would end the game one inning late with a single to center that scored
Lacie Cook to seal the run rule.
Beal followed up with a 2-for-3 outing in the finale, adding one more RBI and a run scored.
Cook, Moore, Hamilton,
Rachel Jones and
Paige Priest each added one hits, with Cook, Jones, Priest and Morris each adding an RBI alongside Beal's.
Mindy McElroy got the start and tossed five innings en route to her 15
th win by not allowing a run on four hits with five strikeouts.
Bennett would come on to toss the final two innings to earn her seventh save of the year after not allowing a run or a hit while striking out three.
Priest would single home Hamilton in the second to put the Storm on the board with a 1-0 lead.
Two innings later a Jones bunt single would plate a pinch-running
Shayna Milam to make the lead 2-0.
Beal pushed the lead to 3-0 with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning.
She would then come around to score on a bases loaded walk drawn by Morris and a Cook sac fly would round out the scoring when Jones came home to make the score 5-0 which would hold to be the final.
