THE RUNDOWN

JACKSON, Miss. – It was a dominating effort for the Belhaven University softball team on Saturday afternoon against  McMurry University as BU rolled to a 9-1 victory in conference play.

The Blazers came ready to play offensively, as Belhaven scored nine runs in the bottom of the first inning. 

Allie Gordon reached on a fielder's choice to score Marlee Blackwell from third base to give the Blazers an early 1-0 lead. 

Brianna Dollar had an RBI-single to left field to score Bailey Root bringing the score to 2-0.

Brister Curry drilled a shot to center field to score Allie Gordon and Brianna Dollar to extend the lead to 4-0 still in the bottom of the first inning. She later scored off of a fielding error by the second baseman.

With the bases loaded and one out, Marlee Blackwell stepped up to the plate and hit a bases-clearing triple to give the Green and Gold the 8-0 advantage over the Warhawks.

Still in the first inning, Allie Gordon had an RBI-single , but got thrown out as she was trying to extend a single to a double to make the score 9-0 after one full inning.

It was a quick second inning for the Blazers, but the Warhawks got on the board in the top of the third inning when Krause earned a RBI-single to score Morris to bring the score to 9-1.

The score remained the same for the remainder of the game, as the Blazers run ruled the Warhawks to take the game and the series. The Green and Gold defeated McMurry by a final score of 9-1 in five innings.

HEAD COACH KEVIN GRIFFIN COMMENTS ON THE WIN 

"I challenged our team to come out today in attack mode and set the tone early in the ballgame.  We did just that! I'm proud of the effort this weekend in finding a way to win the series.  The top of our order has the ability to set the tone in a positive way every game that we play.  We just have to be consistent in that regard.  When we come through the gates completely focused, we have the ability to be as good as anyone.  Unfortunately we are not going to have seven and nine run innings very often and we only scored in three of the 18 innings that we played this weekend; however, we made those innings count in a big way.  It takes a lot of pressure off of our pitching staff when we give them run support and allows them to not try to make perfect pitches to every batter.  Our defense really played well today and we did the little things right.  I'm proud of our team and hope we will take the same mentality to Austin, Texas to play Concordia next weekend."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

As a team, the Blazers had a total of nine hits and nine runs in today's contest.

Marlee Blackwell led the Blazers going 3-for-3 from the plate and drove in 3 runs.

Brister Curry and Marlee Blackwell each had a pair of RBI and a hit in the game.

Brianna Dollar tallied the other RBI during the win; she also scored a run in the contest and earned a hit.

Bailey Root went the distance in the circle in game three of the series and only gave up one run in the contest. She tossed 5.0 innings and struck out three batters.

UP NEXT

The Blazers will return to the field on Friday, April 12 for a doubleheader against the Concordia University Texas Tornados in Austin, Texas. First pitch is set for 5:00 p.m.
 
For the latest news on Belhaven Blazers athletics, follow @BelhavenBlazers on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.