Softball Sweeps Final Regular Season Doubleheader Against Truett McConnell

ATHENS, Tenn.- The final games of the regular season took place on Wednesday for the softball team. The team hosted the Truett McConnell University Lady Bears in a game that had Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament implications on the line. A sweep by either team would make the winner the No. 3 team in the regular season standings. 

Game One:

After two innings, the Lady Bulldogs led 4-1. Macy Chastain was the first run of the game, scoring on a Bailee Phillips RBI single in the bottom of the first. In the second inning, Mackenzie Baldwin broke a 1-1 tie with her solo home run. Before the inning ended, Chastain and Courtney Sneed both scored on a Taylor Penning single, making the score 4-1. 

In the fourth inning, Kaley Bradley grew the lead with a single scoring boh Sneed and Penning, moving the lead to 6-1. TWU ended the game early in the sixth inning, and it happened with two outs in the inning. Bradley kept the inning going with a single and was followed by a Baldwin single. Hallie DeArman followed with a single that brought the Bradley home to make the lead 7-1. Brooke Freeman came in to pinch hit and brought in a run with a single scoring Baldwin to make the score one run away from the run rule being in effect. Chastain put the run rule in effect as when her single allowed pinch runner Italia Kyle to score, making the score 9-1 and ending the game as the run rule came into effect.

Phillips got the pitching win. 

Game Two:

The second game saw a 2-2 tie broken in the third inning. The first two runs of the tie occurred in the first inning. Sneed became the first hit of the game with a single in the bottom of the first. Higgins was the second hit, a home run shot that made the score 2-0. Truett McConnell tied the game in the top of the third inning.

The breaking of the tie ocurred in the bottom of the third inning. Chastain got on base with a single, and moved to second on a Sneed ground out. Penning hit a single to center field that brought Chastain home to give the Lady Bulldogs a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the fourth, the lead grew for Tennessee Wesleyan when Phillips scored on Baldwin's double, moving the lead to two runs. 

After the opponents scored a run in the fifth, the Lady Bulldogs scored an insurance run in the sixth. Bradley eventually became the run, getting on base with a single, moving to second on Baldwin's single, and scoring on a Courtney Wilson single, making the final score 5-3 to give the team the sweep of the doubleheader.

Madison Stott got the pitching win while Isabella Jenkins was credited with a save.

The win gave TWU (24-11, 21-7 AAC) the No. 3 seed in the upcoming AAC Tournament. The team will face the sixth seed in the tournament, Columbia College, on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.