Montgomery, Ala. – The Presbyterian College softball team split a pair of games on Saturday at the Black and Gold Spring Tournament, hosted by Alabama State. The Blue Hose upended Howard in their second game of the day, 9-1, after falling 2-1 against Grambling State in eight innings.
Alyssa Batastini pitched a complete game in the loss against the Tigers, allowing only one earned run on a pair of hits. The redshirt junior collected 11 strikeouts in 27 batters faced in the defeat. She retired the first 13 batters of the day, not allowing a baserunner until the fifth inning.
The Blue Hose put their run across on an attempted double steal. Chelsea Lyons was able to swipe home after reaching base on a single, stealing second, and advancing to third on a single by Kiley Kross. Kross was caught stealing on the play.
Grambling State was able to score the winning run in the top of the eighth inning with a pair of sacrifices.
Taylor Ward earned her first collegiate victory against Howard while pitching her first complete game for the Blue Hose. The freshman allowed only a single run on five hits and a walk over her 26 batters faced.
Ward was aided by some early scoring by the PC offense against the Bison. The Blue Hose put up two runs in the first and followed that with three more in the next frame.
Courtney White and Casey Gerhard each drove in runs in the top of the first on a fielder's choice, scoring Jonnie Petree and Ansley Wilbanks. Wilbanks would drive in a run herself with two outs in the second with a sacrifice fly. That would be followed by a two-RBI double to left field by Macy Hyatt to give PC a 5-0 cushion.
PC struck for three more runs in the top of the fifth inning. Batastini slapped a double up the middle to score Kross and Lyons. Petree would then drive in Batastini with a single to make the score 8-1. Grace Wallace would add one more run to the board with an RBI single in the sixth.
The Blue Hose will travel to Georgia for their next contest on Wednesday night. The Bulldogs are currently ranked #8 in the country. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
