
Softball Wins Season Opener in Extra Innings
LEBANON, Tenn.- The softball team played their first game of the 2025 season on Tuesday and had an exciting finish. TWU used a three-run 11th inning to defeat the Cumberland University Lady Phoenix in extra innings.
The team trailed for the majority of the game. Cumberland scored a run in the first and fourth innings. In the top of the sixth inning, the Lady Bulldogs tied the game.
Courtney Sneed, Bailee Phillips, and Mackenzie Baldwin all opened the inning with singles. Kaley Bradley gave the team their first run with a single that allowed Sneed to score. Tatum Massengale followed with a sacrifice fly that gave pinch-runner Ali Richards the time to score. Neither team scored a run before the end of regulation innings, sending the game to extras.
Each team scored in the eighth and ninth innings. With the international tiebreaker rule in effect that places a runner on second, Baldwin moved to third on a by Bradley in the eighth inning. Baldwin scored on a single by Massengale to give the team a temporary lead. In the ninth, a wild pitch got Penning to third and an error on Phillips's contact gave Penning the space to score.
After a scoreless tenth inning left the score 4-4, TWU plated three runs in the 11th. With Macy Chastain on third after a Penning sacrifice bunt, Sneed singled to bring Penning home to break the tie. Baldwin gave the team insurance runs with a home run giving the team a 7-4 lead. The insurance runs came into play as Cumberland scored two runs in the bottom of the eleventh, giving the Lady Bulldogs the 7-6 win in the eleventh.
Baldwin and Massengale both had two RBIs. Isabella Jenkins got the pitching win.
TWU (1-0) stays on the road for their next game, playing No. 3 University of the Cumberlands on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m.