Milligan Softball Rides Phenomenal Pitching, Timely Hitting to Victories over SMC

MILLIGAN, Tenn. – On Sunday afternoon, the Milligan University softball squad met up with the Pioneers of Spartanburg Methodist College on Anglin Field for a two-game set of non-conference battles. The Buffaloes ended up taking both games against the future Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) foe, while only giving up two runs across 14 frames.

Game one started about as perfect as the Buffs could have hoped for, as they scored three times in the opening inning on RBI doubles by Alexis Brown, Mia Grasse and Jordan Roulettwheeler, scoring Ashley Worley, Brown and Grasse to take an early 3-0 lead.

A total of four combined hits were tallied over the last six innings of the game, and no runs were scored by either side, resulting in a 3-0 shutout win by the Lady Buffs over the Pioneers to begin the afternoon.

The second competition started in a similar fashion, as the Buffs scored twice in the first frame. Maggie Johnson laced an RBI triple over the right fielder's head to score Worley, and then Brown doubled to left field to score Ma. Johnson, making it 2-0.

Two more Milligan tallies would come across in the second, as Hadley York delivered an RBI single and an error by the center fielder in Ma. Johnson's at-bat allowed York to score. That put the Buffaloes ahead 4-0.

No more runs would score until the bottom of the fifth, when Roulettwheeler doubled to score Brown, making it a 5-0 MU lead.

Spartanburg Methodist would score their only two runs of the day on a two-run single in the top of the sixth, but would be held off the board in the final frame, as the Buffaloes took a 5-2 win to sweep the day.

Brown had a three-hit day with two RBIs, and both Grasse and York also had three hits across the two contests, with one RBI apiece. Ma. Johnson, Worley and Roulettwheeler had a pair of hits apiece.

Katelin Secrist had a breakout game in the circle in the first contest, tossing a complete-game shutout while allowing only three base hits. She also racked up three strikeouts in the performance without a walk.

Sadie Shoun started, and finished, the second matchup on the slab, tossing the first 5.1 innings before being relieved by Bree Presnell for a short two-batter period in the sixth. Shoun re-entered and closed out the game with a total of 7.0 innings pitched and two runs on her tally with four strikeouts and four hits surrendered.

As a squad, the Buffaloes had a great day against the Pioneers, moving their overall record to 13-11 with a AAC doubleheader next on the docket on Wednesday, Mar. 26 at Johnson University in Knoxville, Tenn., with game one setting under way at 2 p.m.