CLEVELAND, Ga. (Feb. 4, 2020) – The No. 14 Truett McConnell University softball team hosted Middle Georgia State University on Tuesday afternoon for their season opener at the TMU Softball Complex. The Lady Bears fell in the first game of the nonconference doubleheader 6-3 but bounced back with a dominating run-rule win 11-0.
GAME ONE 6-3
After the Knights earned a run right away in the top of the first on three hits (1-0), the Lady Bears matched it in the bottom. Briley Lawson reached base on a single to second but freshman Mattie Brooks singled through the hole at short, which caused the left fielder to misplay a grounder that allowed Briley Lawson to run home (1-1). TMU went on to get out front in the third when Jaden Morrison scored on a dropped fly in center field (2-1). Middle Georgia answered with another run of their own in the fourth (2-2) and it was only from there.
The Knights scored four more runs in the fifth to lead by five (2-6). In the bottom of the seventh, Morrison reached base on a missed catch in the outfield but Brooks sent her home on a single to shallow left-center with two outs (3-6), but it proved not enough.
LEADERS
Brooks led the offense in her debut going 3-for-4 with an RBI, while Alicia Price went 2-for-3 and Morrison had two runs.
Senior Bethany Hyde made the start throwing 4.1 innings of seven hits, six runs, two walks and six strikeouts. Junior All-American Karley Hobbs relieved Hyde the final 2.2 innings to allow one hit, one walk and two strikeouts.
GAME TWO 11-0 | MERCY RULE
Freshman Sabrina Pestana Aguiar made her debut with a two-RBI single up the middle to score Sara Sullivan and Lawson (2-0) in the bottom of the first. Price's single to the infield scored Brooks to immediately give TMU three-run cushion (3-0). After holding Middle GA scoreless again, Morrison led off with a bunt base hit in the second but Sullivan's bunt led to an in the park homerun after the Knights' catcher made a wild throw that rolled to the outfield fence (5-0).
Nonetheless, freshman Justine Kennington sparked TMU's biggest inning of the day with a triple to deep right-center field. Liz Bunton followed up with a single up the middle to score Kennington (6-0). Senior Macey Dunway's sacrifice bunt squeeze brought home Bunton (7-0), and Morrison's squeeze play for a base hit scored Price (8-0). Brooks singled to shallow center to score Morrison and pinch runner Katie Carruth (10-0), and Pestana Aguiar's double down the left field line scored Brooks to round out the Lady Bears' runs. Middle GA left one on base the rest of the way as the game proved to be out of reach.
LEADERS
Morrison went perfect at the plate (3-for-3) with two runs and an RBI. Pestana Aguiar went 2-for-3 with three RBI's. Brooks added two runs and two RBI's.
Hobbs, the two-time Appalachian Athletic Conference pitcher of the year, earned her first win of the season allowing three hits, zero runs, one walk and three strikeouts over five innings.
UP NEXT
TMU is set to host Faulkner University on Friday, Feb. 14, at 1:00 p.m., and West Virginia University Institute of Technology on Saturday, Feb. 15, for two back-to-back nonconference doubleheaders.
