In the first game, the Lady Senators put a three-spot on the board in each of their first two turns at the plate. Lindsey Loudermilk doubled in a run and Cassie Elliott followed with a two-run homer in the first. Loudermilk doubled in two more in the second and Elliott singled in another for a 6-0 Walters State lead.
The Lady Cougars began to chip away at the lead when Casey Griffin singled in a run in the bottom of the second and Abby O’Rear singled in another one in the third cutting the lead to 6-2.
The score remained right there until the Lady Cougars last turn at the dish in the seventh. Griffin Started things with a walk and moved to second on a single from Paige Smith. After a sacrifice from English Nichols moved the runners to second and third, Madison McKinney singled in a run and O’Rear knocked in two more with a single to slice the lead to one run. The rally fell one run short though as the Lady Senators held on to take game one.
Courtney Patrick took the loss for the Lady Cougars while Ashley Rhyne picked up the win for the Lady Senators.
In the second game, Lauryn Denton singled in a run in the first to put Walters State on top. But, the Lady Cougars tied the game in the bottom of the frame when Nichols singled, stole second and scored on a double by McKinney.
The Lady Senators jumped back on top in the top of the third after Brittany Heffner led the inning off with a solo homer to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.
The Lady Cougars tied the game once again in the bottom of the fifth when Dee Elswick came up with a clutch two-out single to plate McKinney who had walked and stole second.
The Lady Senators see-sawed back into the lead in the sixth after loading the bases and pushing a run across on a sacrifice fly from Courtney Davis to build a 3-2 advantage. The visitors finally put the game out of reach an inning later when Loudermilk came up with the big hit knocking in a pair of runs with a double in the gap that one-hopped the fence for a 5-2 Walters State lead.
The Lady Cougars put a couple of runners on base in their last at-bat and brought the tying run to the plate. But, that was the extent of the rally as the Lady Senators held on for the win.
Cora Baker tossed six plus innings to get the win for Walters State while Katie Morris finished in relief. Meghan Smith suffered the loss for the Lady Cougars (6-6).
“Both of our pitchers threw well today,” said Lady Cougars’ coach Katie Willingham. “We have to find a way to win the close games. We had our chances in both games and we out-hit them in the first game. It’s frustrating to lose the close ones, but we’ll improve and hopefully win some of these down the road.”
The Lady Cougars will travel to Volunteer State Thursday in a pair of non-conference games.
