SUMMIT – Northwest opened the 2015 softball season with a road split at Southwest Mississippi, falling 11-10 in the opener on a Payton Lewis walk-off double and then bouncing back with a convincing, 11-0 run-rule win in the nightcap in five innings.
Freshman infielder
Erin Claire Stegall and sophomore utility player
Jessica Holliday paced the Rangers' offense at the plate, with Stegall going 5-for-8 with two doubles, four runs scored an an RBI and Holliday going 3-for-4 with five RBIs and blasting two home runs.
(Game 1) Northwest jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first, batting through the order and scoring four runs off four hits and two Lady Bear errors.
Ashton Needham and
Olivia Owen each had RBI-singles.
An RBI-single from
Micalah Beall scored Stegall and the Rangers led 5-0 after two.
Southwest then caught fire from the plate and would score nine unanswered runs over the next three innings to take a 9-5 lead after five.
A leadoff single from Owen in the sixth, followed by
Drennan Nemnich's pinch-hit, two-run home run, brought the Rangers within 9-7. Four batters later, Holliday launched her first career home run over the fence in left-center, scoring Stegall and
Hanna Hunter, and Northwest led 10-9.
Kiley Dunagan entered in the bottom of the sixth in relief of Holliday and escaped a bases loaded jam with no outs to preserve a one-run lead into the final frame.
A leadoff walk in the bottom of the seventh to Jana McEwen ended up putting the game-winning run at the plate, but after a strikeout and putout at second base, the Rangers were an out away from victory.
Jessica Pipkins singled into left-center on the first pitch she saw, scoring Jessie Penton to tie it, and Payton Lewis followed with an RBI-double to right to provide the walk-off hit.
Southwest's 1-through-4 hitters combined to go 12-for-17 with nine RBIs and six runs scored, led by four hits apiece from Shaden Miller and Lewis.
(Game 2) It was all Northwest in the nightcap, however, as 10 different Rangers had a hit in an 11-0 rout in five innings.
Dunagan bounced back from a Game 1 loss to get the win in 3.2 innings of work, striking out four and allowing no runs off two hits. Needham and
Peyton Rico closed out the combined shutout.
Northwest scored four runs in the first, highlighted by Holliday's two-run home run, and added five in the third to put the game out of reach.
Brittany Rochelle, Owen,
Christina Berryhill and Stegall all had run-scoring hits.
Hanna Hunter capped a 3-for-3 game with a two-run single in the fourth.
Northwest will return to action tomorrow, Feb. 19 at Hinds. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. from Rene T. Warren Field.
