BOONEVILLE – After having a handful of games postponed or canceled due to rain, the Northwest softball team finally got to see the field on Tuesday for the Mississippi-Tennessee Challenge at Booneville's City Park. 

Northwest dropped both games, falling to Columbia State 13-2 in five innings and Motlow State 6-1 in eight innings.

Game 1 – Columbia St. 13, Northwest 2 (5)

The Chargers jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first three innings, highlighted by Brianna Brady's two-run home run in the first, and never looked back in a run-rule win.

Madison Crosby's leadoff single in the bottom of the third started a small rally for the Rangers who would get on the board on Katie Brownlee's two-out, two-run single to pull within 7-2.

A six-run fourth for Columbia State then put things out of reach. Grace Hobdy, Maleia Gray, Kaitlyn Scruggs and Savannah Hayes all had RBIs in the frame.

Brownlee was touched for nine runs, seven earned, in just 1.1 innings of work. Hayden Lee moved to 3-0 for the Chargers.

Maddy Politte and Delta Claire Newman both went 2-for-3 to lead Northwest, who finished with seven hits. 

Game 2 – Motlow State 6, Northwest 1 (8)

Sophomore Sarah Johnson went the distance in the circle for Northwest and allowed just one run before a grand slam in the eighth allowed Motlow to take the victory in extras.

Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, Northwest used a leadoff double from Shelby Wilson and would eventually score her on a fielder's choice to knot the game at 1-1. 

Johnson allowed just four hits through seven innings to keep the game tied before running into trouble in the eighth. 

With a runner placed on second as part of the international tiebreaker rule, three straight singles allowed the go-ahead run to score before Madison Hopkins' grand slam to straight away center won it for Motlow, 6-1.

Northwest will host Coahoma on Thursday in a non-conference matchup and will then travel back to Booneville Saturday for the Farewell to Carnell Classic.