ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – The Southern Nazarene softball team picked up their 20
th victory of the 2021 season on Friday night, as they took down Ouachita Baptist 9-4 in the first game of the series.
After sitting out last weekend due to COVID-19 protocols, SNU showed no signs of rust on the road entering their final weekend of Great American Conference regular season play. The Crimson Storm (20-17, 18-10 GAC) used seven total runs in the fifth and sixth innings to push their way out in front of the Tigers (18-17, 16-15 GAC) and the rest was history.
Senior
Brooklyn Sparkman stole the show on Friday night as she launched a grand slam in the fifth inning to give SNU their first lead of the evening. Sparkman racked up a career-high six RBI's in the contest and was one of three Storm hitters to hit home runs in the contest.
Caitlyn Curlee cranked her seventh homer of the year while
Hailie Fellers blasted her sixth as SNU's bats compiled 13 hits in the game. Sparkman and Curlee each finished 2-for-4 at the dish as Curlee drove in two RBI's and added three runs scored. Fellers went 1-for-4 while
Sydney Sundbye and
Mahina Sauer each recorded multiple hits in the contest as well.
Riah Smith finished 2-for-4 with a run scored while
Natalie Jones and
Victoria Rodriguez found the box score with a base knock.
Sparkman got the start in the circle for the Crimson Storm and earned her 13
th victory of the season. She delivered two strikeouts on seven hits and four runs in 5.0 innings of action.
Hannah Sattler came out of the SNU bullpen and tossed the final 2.0 innings and allowed just one hit.
Curlee got the party started right out of the gate in the top of the first as her solo home run gave Southern Nazarene the early 1-0 lead. Ouachita Baptist tied the game with a run in the bottom of the second inning before the Tigers plated two more runs in the third to take their first lead of the contest at 3-1.
Fellers' solo shot to right field in the top of the fourth cut the Storm deficit in half to 3-2 before Sparkman's grand slam in the fifth catapulted SNU into the lead at 6-3. Ouachita pushed one run across the plate in the bottom of the fifth to cut it to 6-4 before Curlee's single in the sixth scored Smith to push the Storm advantage back to three at 7-4. From there, the Crimson Storm got a couple more insurance runs in the sixth when Sparkman's single plated Curlee and Sundbye to make it 9-4. SNU's defense was able to hold strong in the final inning to close out the Tigers.
Southern Nazarene will close out the series with Ouachita tomorrow afternoon in Arkadelphia in a doubleheader kicking off at 12:00 p.m.
