GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University softball team won game one over Davis & Elkins on Saturday (Feb. 18) before the Senators exploded for a nightcap victory.
Tusculum (6-7) continues its extended home stand by playing host to Columbus State on Sunday (Feb. 19. First pitch between the teams is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Game 1: Tusculum 4, Davis & Elkins 2
Claire Smeltzer powered the Pioneers to victory behind a 2-for-3 outing with three RBI and a run scored. Keylon Reynolds pitched a pair of shutout innings to record TU's first save of the season.
Tusculum got off to the races quickly as its first four batters of the game reached base safely. Kallyn Newport led off with a double and was driven in by a Smeltzer hit. Emily Sappington drew a walk and her backstop Chloe Freischmidt plated the lead runner with a deep single to left center field. Looking to add on, Alyssa Suits laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance her teammates into scoring position, but TU was unable to capitalize.
In the circle, Sappington struck out the side in the second frame. Her perfect game and no-hitter bids were both broken up in the third inning.
The Senators avoided the shutout with a solo home run in the top of the fifth.
TU responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning. Katelynn Hodges was the beneficiary of a pair of errors by Davis & Elkins. The first was reaching on a miscue by the shortstop and she advanced to second on failed pickoff attempt that went errant. Newport got on via a fielder's choice to put runners on the corners. She stole second and Smeltzer drove in both of her teammates on a single through the right side.
D&E cut the lead to two after consecutive hits to start the sixth, but no more damage was done.
Sappington (5-3) pitched 5.0 innings, striking out seven. She relented two runs on five hits on 84 pitches. Reynolds closed out the opener with four strikeouts, two walks, and two hits.
Game 2: Davis & Elkins 11, Tusculum 7
The Senators were held scoreless in the middle innings, but the Pioneers allowed a season-high 11 runs in Davis & Elkins' first win of the year. Both Sammy Jimenez and Maddie McBride tallied a pair of hits.
D&E picked up where it left off in game one, launching a two-run homer in the first inning, a lead which it would never relent. The Senators added two more in the second to widen the gap.
McBride led off the bottom of the frame, taking a pitch to the foot. Hannah Hughes singled up the middle, followed by another Suits sacrifice bunt. McBride outran the squeeze bunt by Hayley Lazo as TU's first run.
Also leading off the fourth, McBride belted her second home run in as many series, tallying homers as back-to-back hits.
Davis & Elkins scored four in the fifth, taking advantage of two Tusculum errors and three hits.
The Pioneers scored two to cut the lead in half. Smeltzer reached on a fielder's choice. Stepping in with two outs, Jimenez drilled a double to left center, advancing to third on the throw, scoring Smeltzer. McBride drove in Jimenez with her RBI single.
A sacrifice fly by the Senators made the score 9-4 heading into the bottom of the sixth.
TU's big inning was a three-run affair, sending eight batters to the plate. Madison Watts teed off a pinch hit single to center, with Suits reentering to run. Suits stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch on Sappington's pinch hit ball four. Hodges came back in to run for Sappington, moving up 60 feet on a groundout. Smeltzer sent a pop up into shallow left field with two outs. The left fielder and shortstop collided, allowing both Suits and Hodges to score. Freischmidt and Jimenez knocked back-to-back hits, plating pinch runner Italia Kyle.
Davis & Elkins scored two insurance runs in the seventh.
Ireland Cavanaugh (1-3) threw five innings, allowing seven runs (six earned) on eight hits across 99 pitches. She also struck out and walked one. Reynolds entered in relief for the second half of the doubleheader to throw 1.2 frames. She added one strikeout, one walk, three hits, and two runs (one earned) in 43 pitches. Makayla Bush also made a quick appearance in the circle. In 13 pitches, she retired a batter, walked one, allowed two hits, and two runs (one earned) scored.
