BETHANY – Southern Nazarene's softball team hosted Arkansas-Monticello in a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon to wrap up their final GAC home series of the 2021 season. SNU closed out the series with UAM with a split on the final day, dropping the first game 7-5 and winning 10-2 in a run-rule in the finale.
The Crimson Storm (19-17, 17-10 GAC) walk away from the weekend taking the series against the Blossoms (9-22, 8-19 GAC) as they gear up for the final two GAC series on the road in the next two weekends.
Game 1
The first game of the day saw the Storm waste no time in getting on a roll to open the contest. In the first inning, the bases were full and
Hailie Fellers walked which allowed
Skye Ah Yat to trot home to give SNU the early 1-0 lead.
Later in the same inning,
Sydney Sundbye hit a double down the left field line that gave
Mahina Sauer and
Caitlyn Curlee the opportunity to extend the Storm's lead to 3-0.
After both teams were held scoreless in the second and third innings, the Blossoms bats came alive as they plated four runs to take the 4-3 lead. In the bottom half of the fourth,
Brooklyn Sparkman hit a fly ball out to left field which gave
Natalie Jones the go-ahead to score, tying the game up at 4-4.
The fifth inning featured no runs scored on either side but in the sixth inning, UAM pushed three more runs across to take the 7-4 lead. In the bottom of the sixth,
Victoria Rodriguez hit a single to left field scoring Sundbye to cut the deficit to 7-5 for SNU. The Storm had one final chance in the seventh to make some noise, but Arkansas-Monticello closed the door to secure the win.
Sydney Sundbye starred for SNU at the plate in the first game as she put together one hit, one run, and two RBI's.
Caitlyn Curlee also had a good day as she collected two hits and one run. Hallie Fellers also had a solid outing with one RBI and one hit.
Chelsea Vandiver got the start in the circle for SNU. Vandiver had a good day for the Storm as she only gave up four hits and threw two strikeouts.
Hannah Sattler and
Cassidy Davila each came in relief for the Storm as they combined for a total of two strikeouts and three hits allowed.
Game 2
SNU entered the finale not messing around as they sought to win the series. In the first inning, Hallie Fellers ripped a single to center field that scored
Mahina Sauer and
Caitlyn Curlee to give SNU the early 2-0 lead. Later in that same inning,
Sydney Sundbye reached on a fielder's choice and
Sydney Everhart was able to increase the Storm's lead to three. The rally continued as
Brooklyn Sullivan hit a single to center field which allowed
Natalie Jones and
Sydney Sundbye to both cross the plate and the Storm took a commanding 5-0 lead early.
After both teams went scoreless in the second inning, Southern Nazarene built on their lead with four more runs in the third. Early in the third, Sundbye scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-0. Not much later in that same inning,
Natalie Jones scored on a fielding error to grow the SNU lead even further. After that,
Mahina Sauer hit a single to score
Skye Ah Yat. At the end of the third inning,
Brooklyn Sparkman hit a single to left field and
Caitlyn Curlee scored on the play as SNU saw their lead balloon to 9-0.
The Crimson Storm were held scoreless in the fourth inning, but early in the fifth inning,
Caitlyn Curlee scored on yet another fielding error.
The final score of the game was 10-2 in favor of the Crimson Storm as they secured the run-rule victory
Sydney Sundbye had a great day at the plate for Storm as she put together two runs, one hit, and one RBI.
Caitlyn Curlee scored three runs and had one hit in the contest.
Mahina Sauer also starred for SNU as her stat line read two hits, one run, and one RBI.
Brooklyn Sparkman went the distance for SNU in the series finale, as she tossed 5.0 innings and she struck out an astounding seven UAM hitters on just two hits.
Southern Nazarene will return to action on Wednesday afternoon against Central Oklahoma in their final home games of the 2021 season at Cypert Athletic Complex. First pitch with the Bronchos is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
