LORMAN, Miss. – A base-clearing triple by senior
Robin Harrison was the play that decided a 4-2 victory for the Alcorn State University softball program over Alabama State on Tuesday at the Alcorn Softball Complex.
As a result, Alcorn (13-31, 10-5 SWAC) solidified its third consecutive winning SWAC season which had never been done before in program history.
The Lady Braves trailed the Hornets (19-27, 9-6 SWAC) 2-0 in the fourth inning when Harrison came up with the bases loaded and one out. She roped a liner that the right fielder came diving in for, but the ball ending up rolling all the way to the wall to score three runs. Harrison then scored on an RBI grounder to short by sophomore
Alicia Hill for the decisive 4-2 tally.
The inning broke-up a perfect game for ASU's Justine Jean who was sharp through three frames but took the loss.
"This was a very good win. We just battled early on. Jean was pretty tough for them which was what we expected, but we told our team to just keep pressing and pushing along," said head coach
Josef Rankin. "In the fourth inning, we were able to get some runners on, and then the right fielder tried to make a great play. It was one of those plays where if you make it, everything is great, but if you don't then we saw what happened. Robin did a great job of coming up with that line drive when we needed a hit."
In addition to Harrison's big hit, she also picked up the win in the circle after tossing 4.0 frames. Junior
Winter Ridgeway entered in the fifth and fired 3.0 no-hitting innings to earn the save.
"We were clean all the way through defensively. Winter did a great job of closing it out for us, but this was a great team win," Rankin said. "I am very proud with how we played the entire way and we didn't hang our heads. It's close games like this that we need to learn how to win."
Junior
Victoria Tyler knocked two hits in the contest for her 11th multi-hit game of the year. She reached on an infield single in the fourth and a laser up the middle in the sixth.
Alcorn now moves one game ahead of Alabama State in the SWAC East Division standings, and a half game in front of Alabama A&M. The Lady Braves have the tiebreaker on both teams.
The Lady Braves have won five of the last six games against the Hornets dating back to last year.
Alcorn will wrap-up the regular season Thursday and Friday at home against Texas Southern. Friday will be Senior Day as the Lady Braves honor
Taylor Hughes,
Mariah Ortiz and Harrison.
#FearTheBrave
