2/28/19
CLEVELAND, Ga. (Feb. 27, 2019) – The No. 20 Truett McConnell University softball team hosted Cumberland University (Tenn.) for their home opener on Wednesday afternoon. The Lady Bears (12-4) took game one in extra innings 6-5 but the Phoenix (7-2) shutout TMU in game two 5-0.
GAME ONE (6-5)
The Phoenix immediately connected for three hits and five runs in the top of the first (0-5). Senior lead off Kaitlynn Johnson then sparked the bottom of the first for the Lady Bears with a double to deep left field. Johnson was capable of running home on a defensive error (1-5) but Kathrine Kozlowski followed suit with a double herself to deep right-center field to drive home Sara Sullivan (2-5).
Johnson blasted a triple to deep right-center in the bottom of the second which scored Macey Dunaway and Jaden Morrison to put the Lady Bears behind by one (4-5). Sullivan’s single to deep left-center field scored the tying run in the fourth (5-5). Still five apiece after the seventh, the game was forced into extra innings.
Cumberland scored in the top of the eighth (5-6) but the Lady Bears secured the win in the bottom of the eighth which featured a Sullivan triple (7-6).
Hobbs was credited the win after throwing 7.1 innings. Hobbs allowed one earned run and four hits, while walking one and striking out four.
LEADERS
Johnson, Peyton Wilson and Alicia Price all went 2-for-4. Morrison went 2-for-3 while Sullivan went 2-for-5.
GAME TWO (5-0)
Cumberland put themselves on the board first in the second inning with a run but it was ultimately the fourth inning that doomed the Lady Bears. The Phoenix tallied five hits and four runs. However, Hobbs stepped in to relieve freshman Sydney Blackmon and it was only up from there on the pitcher’s mound.
Hobbs went on to throw 3.1 shutout innings, holding Cumberland hitless. Hobbs walked zero and struck out three. In fact, Hobbs’ fifth, sixth and seventh innings were three up and three down.
TMU earned five hits but were unable to capitalize.
LEADERS
Freshman Briley Lawson went 2-for-3 while Morrison, Kozlowski and Wilson added a hit apiece.
UP NEXT
The Lady Bears will host Columbia College on Fr
