COLUMBUS, Ga. --- The Tusculum University softball team halved a pair of eight inning games on day one of the Georgian event, dropping a result to West Florida before storming back for a victory over Columbus State.
Tusculum (5-6) goes to Americus for the second day of the Cougar-Hurricane Classic. The Pioneers will square off against NAIA Point at 10:30 a.m. and Georgia Southwestern at 1:30 p.m.
Game 1: West Florida 4, Tusculum 1 (8 innings)
Maddie McBride tallied the game's first run, but a late three-run rally by the Argos handed the Pioneers the loss.
Claire Smeltzer earned a one-out walk in the fourth, followed by Gabi Nicholson single to right field. McBride drew first blood with a double to score her fellow outfielder Smeltzer. TU attempted to tack on with the next batter but a flyout and an outfield assist ended the frame.
The first batter of the fifth for the Argonauts homered to left to tie the game at 1-all.
West Florida loaded the bases in the top of the eighth and a double cleared the basepath.
Emily Sappington (1-1) was dinged for the complete game loss, tossing 135 pitches across the eight innings. She relented four runs (three earned) on seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
Game 2: Tusculum 11, Columbus State 9 (8 innings)
The teams scored early and often as Tusculum overcame a 9-3 deficit to win in extras. Four Pioneers homered in the nightcap.
Danielle Jason drew a game-opening walk, quickly stealing second. Nicholson also walked with two outs to bring up McBride. She belted her first home run of the year, traveling over the left field fence.
The Cougars responded with two runs in the bottom half of the frame to keep the game close.
CSU added a RBI double in the second to tie the final game of the day at 3-3.
Columbus State hit a pair of home runs in the fourth, including a grand slam, to score nine unanswered runs over the Pioneers.
Tusculum responded in kind. Sammy Jimenez reached on an error and Smeltzer homered to right. Nicholson also hit a home run for Tusculum to go back-to-back and force a Cougar pitching change.
Jimenez got in on the longball fun in the sixth inning. Madison Watts pinch hit a single, with Abby Hunter entering to run. Ellie Alvarez singled to put two runners on for Jimenez. She hit her team-leading fourth jack of the season to tie the contest at 9-all, ultimately forcing extras.
Natalie Spaitis was used as the international tiebreaker and sent to second to start the eighth inning. She advanced to third on an Alvarez flyout. Brooke Smith walked to put runners on the corners. Everyone moved up as Jason legged out an infield single. Jimenez put a ball into play with everyone called safe once again to put TU up 11-9.
Just as Spaitis scored the eventual winning run, she shut down the Cougar threat in the circle, striking out the last batter of the game.
Tusculum used three pitchers in the contest: Ireland Cavanaugh, Nyah Vogel, and Natalie Spaitis. Cavanaugh picked up the start, throwing three innings of five-hit, five-run ball. Vogel entered in relief to get two outs, but four runs scored on two hits. Spaitis had yet another nearly flawless outing. She finished out the 4.1 innings with three hits to five strikeouts.
