Softball Splits Opening Day at Mardi Gras Invite

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 YOUNGSVILLE, La. – Gracie Ore and Sage Harlow each led the offensive charge on opening day as Southeastern split its first two games of the season, downing Delta State 6-4 in game one before falling 14-11 in the nightcap versus No. 24 Mississippi College at the Mardi Gras Invitational in Youngsville, La.
 
The split gives the Savage Storm a 1-1 record to open the season heading into a single contest on Saturday versus Augustana scheduled for 9 a.m.
 
Sage Harlow led the way in game one, turning in a 2-for-4 outing with a pair of RBI.
 
Abby Beck turned in a 1-for-2 performance with a pair of RBI, while Kamryn Rackley and Gracie Ore each added a hit and one RBI.
 
Amberlyn Walsworth got the start and tossed a complete game to earn the victory, allowing four runs on five hits with seven strikeouts.
 
A two-run homer would put DSU on the board first in the top of the first inning, but SE would answer with a Harlow RBI single to plate Ore and cut the deficit in half.
 
Rackley would tie the game at 2-2 in the third with an RBI single to score Kady Fryrear.
 
Another Harlow RBI followed by a two-run single by Beck would put up three runs in the bottom of the fourth, extending the lead to 5-2.
 
Delta State would cut the SE lead to one run in the top of the fifth with a pair of runs, but Ore would tack on an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning to move the lead to 64 which would hold as the final.
 
In the nightcap, Southeastern found itself trading big shots, with nine Storm hitters picking up hits in the contest that featured four innings between the two teams that saw four-or-more runs scored.
 
Ore turned in a 3-for-4 performance with three RBI out of the leadoff spot to pace SE, while Channing Sarver turned in a two-hit outing with one RBI.
 
Kamryn Rackley, Beck, Fryrear, Harlow, Reese Taylor, Kasey Simmons, and Bailey Beard each added hits.
 
Harlow would drive in three runs to match Ore, while Simmons plated two with Sarver and Sammi Dutton added an RBI each.
 
Alyson Malone got the start and took the brunt pf the damage, allowing eight runs, seven earned, on five hits over 2.1 innings pitched with one strikeout.
 
Taylor would come on in relief and allow a run on two hits in 3.1 innings with five strikeouts.
 
Emily Simmons would finish the contest and suffer the loss after allowing five runs on two hits in 1.1 innings pitched.
 
MC would jump out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but a Harlow RBI single in the bottom of the inning would tie the game at 1-1.
 
A three-run triple and a Storm error would give the Choctaw a four-run inning in the second, with an Ore Rbi single int h ebo0ttom half being the only answer SE could find, making the score 5-2.
 
MC would tack on four more runs in the third to push the lead out to 9-2 which would hold until the bottom pf the fourth.
 
That was when Southeastern would put its big inning together, first with a Dutton walk before two batters later Ore drove in two runs on a single to close it to 9-5.
 
A Harlow sac fly would trim the deficit to 9-6, setting the table to a Kasey Simmons two-run single followed by an RBI single by Channing Sarver which would bring in two more runs and put the Storm in front 10-9.
 
Harlow would drive in one more run in the fifth inning, plating Dutton to take an 11-9 lead after five innings.
 
However, MC would put together a four-run sixth inning powered in large part by a three-run triple to retake the lead at 14-11, which would hold as the final.