Softball Sweeps First Half of Series vs. NWOSU

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern's offense totaled 21 hits and 16 runs over both ends of a double-header en route to a Friday Sweep of Northwestern Oklahoma State, taking game one 7-1 before winning the nightcap 9-4 at the Southeastern Softball Field.
 
The wins move the Savage Storm to 22-26 overall and 20-18 in Great American Conference play with the final two games of the series set for a 10 a.m. twinbill scheduled for Saturday back the at the Southeastern Softball Field.
 
Ivy Amador collected three hits to pace the offense in game one, while Symphoni Shomo and Keeshia Thompson collected two hits apiece.
 
Katie McCullar, Karsyn Brigance, and Kennedy Salyers each added a hit.
 
Thompson drove in a pair of runs, while Shomo and Amador added an RBI each.
 
McCullar tossed a complete game and allowed an unearned run on five hits with four strikeouts and no free passes to collect the win, her 14^th of the season.
 
A Thompson sac fly put the Storm on the board in the first and a throwing error would bring home Amador in the second to push the lead to 2-0.
 
NWOSU would pick up an unearned run in the third, but the Storm would respond in the fourth, first on a Shomo RBI to score and Brigance followed her home on a passed ball a few pitches later.
 
The lead would hit 5-1 as Shomo came home later in the inning on a wild pitch.
 
An Amador RBI single in the fifth plated Thompson, followed by an RBI double by Thomson in the sixth to stretch the lead out to 7-1 after six innings which would hold to be the final.
 
In the nightcap Elexis Watson homered and finished with three hits and three RBI to pace the offense, while Mykaela Wallace added two hits as did Brigance. Four others chipped in a hit each.
 
Destiny Riddle drove in a pair of runs, while Shomo, Brigance, and Hope Deanda had an RBI each.
 
Emily Cudd got the start and tossed two innings, allowing a run on five hits with one strikeout.
 
Riddle came on in relief and tossed 1.2 innings to pick up the victory while allowing no runs and two hits while striking out two.
 
McCullar would come on to finish the game and pick up an endurance save after tossing 3.1 innings and allowing three runs on six hits with two K's.
 
The Storm got on the board first in game two as well as Shomo drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first before stealing second and third and scoring on a squeeze bunt by Riddle to go ahead 1-0.
 
The Rangers answered with four hits in the top of the second inning, but just brought in one run to tie the game at 1-1 as the Storm got out of a jam and left the bases loaded for NWOSU.
 
Southeastern regained the lead in the third in much the same way they took it in the first, except this time it was a Deanda lead off double that opened the inning and moved to third on a Shomo sac bunt before Riddle squeezed home her second RBI of the day, scoring Deanda and putting the Storm ahead 2-1 after three innings.
 
The Storm exploded for five runs in the fourth inning, first on a Deanda RBI fielder's choice with Shomo following with the same thing to score the second run of the inning. And keep the bases loaded.
 
Watson closed the inning with a two-run single to right field and then forced herself into a run down to allow Shomo to score as they chased her down to push the lead out to 7-1.
 
The Rangers would pick up five hits in the top of the fifth and tack on three runs to close the gap on the Storm to 7-4 midway through five innings.
 
A Brigance RBI single up the middle in the bottom half of the fifth would push SE ahead 8-4 after five innings.
 
A Watson solo homer to left in the bottom of the sixth would extend the lead to 9-4 heading to the final inning.