Lady Braves Overpower Southern in Doubleheader Sweep 16-2, 8-4

BATON ROUGE – Coming back to win the series, the Alcorn State University softball program slugged past Southern in both games of the doubleheader 16-2 in five innings and 8-4 Saturday at Oak Villa BREC Park.
 
Alcorn (5-19, 2-1 SWAC) was also flawless defensively as it didn't make an error in either game.
 
In game one, Alcorn led Southern (8-11, 3-3 SWAC) 4-2 when it erupted for 10 runs in the fourth inning to pull away. The Lady Braves outhit the Jags 16-3 in the contest.
 
The 16 runs marked a season-high and the most since 2008 when Alcorn beat Rust College 37-2. It was the most scored in a conference game for the Lady Braves since 2004 when they ousted Jackson State 16-12.
 
Game two was tight until the seventh inning when the Lady Braves put four runs on the board to build a late 8-3 advantage.
 
"We responded today. We were much more relentless with our effort. It's a credit to the players in this program who took on the challenge of playing to the standard we want for our program," said Alcorn head coach Josef Rankin. "We had contributions from a lot of people today and it was a total team effort. Paige Taylor, Lindsey Eldridge and Winter Ridgeway were pretty good on the mound and put us in positions to win. Mariah Ortiz came up with a huge hit in the final game."
 
In conference games, Alcorn is now 5-1 against Southern under Rankin.
 
"I appreciate all of the families and friends who came out to support us. When you look up and see people from Arizona, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Texas and Louisiana it's an awesome thing. It's great to have support for these young ladies," Rankin said. "Our ladies kind of adopted a mentality that if you're with us, then let's ride, but if you aren't, we are still going to ride anyways."
 
Game One
The only time the Lady Braves trailed all day was after the first inning of the first game after the Jags plated two runs. Alcorn quickly responded with two in the second to tie it 2-2. It came via an RBI double down the left field line by sophomore Alicia Hill and an RBI single up the middle by freshman Bri Smith.
 
The Lady Braves took the lead 4-2 after two runs in the third. Freshman Desirea Lindsey led it off with an infield single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single to center by senior Taylor Hughes. After a sacrifice and a ground ball to the right side, Hughes scored from third on a wild pitch.
 
Alcorn's biggest inning of the season came in the fourth with 10 runs on nine hits and an error. Freshman Amari Ramsey doubled twice in the frame resulting in three RBI's. Smith and freshman Malea Dickerson also had RBI singles to keep it going.
 
The Lady Braves continued to pour it on with two more runs in the fifth. They loaded the bases with no outs and scored on an RBI fielder's choice by freshman Taja Landry. The final blow came on an RBI single by junior Kaylene Smith.
 
Junior Paige Taylor pitched all five innings to pick up her second consecutive win.
 
Lindsey was four-for-four at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI. She becomes the first Lady Brave to record four hits in a game this season. Bri Smith also turned in a big performance with three hits, two runs and two RBI's. Ramsey finished with two hits, three RBI's and two runs scored. Kaylene Smith knocked a pair of hits for her first career multi-hit game.
 
Game Two
The Lady Braves struck first with three runs in the third. With two outs and a runner on second, Lindsey singled up the middle to get Alcorn on the board. After a walk, junior Victoria Tyler came to the plate and hit a ball to right field which resulted in an error and two more runs scored.
 
The Jags got one back in the bottom half, but Alcorn tacked on another in the fifth to stay ahead 4-1. It came on another error after Hughes singled to right, and the runner from first came all the way around to score after a fielding miscue.
 
Southern got back in it with two runs in the sixth to cut the deficit to 4-3. It came on a two-run homer by Jamani Greer.
 
The Lady Braves punched back with three insurance runs in the top of the seventh to increase their lead to 8-4. The bases were loaded with no outs when Hughes ripped a liner through the right side for a base-clearing double. Hughes then scored on an RBI single by senior Mariah Ortiz to center.
 
Freshman Lindsey Eldridge earned her second consecutive win. She pitched 5.2 frames and struck out three. Junior Winter Ridgeway entered in reliefer and recorded a save after throwing the final 1.1 innings.
 
Hughes was two-for-three at the plate with three RBI's and two runs scored. It was her team-leading 11th multi-hit game of the year.
 
Ramsey extended her hitting-streak to 12 games and her on-base streak to 14 with an infield single in the seventh.
 
"We are going to rest up tomorrow, practice Monday and get on the road to play Memphis which is playing at an extremely high level. We are looking forward to the opportunity to compete," Rankin said.
 
The Lady Braves will look to carry momentum into Tuesday when it travels for a doubleheader at Memphis beginning at 4 p.m.
 
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