Troy, Ala. – Nicholls claimed a 12-4 victory over Furman in the opening game on Saturday and Kennesaw State topped the Paladins, 16-7, in the second game of the day at Troy's Trojan Softball Invitational.
Nicholls 12, Furman 4 (5 Inn.)
Reagan Heflin collected three hits and drove in three runs to power the Nicholls Colonels to a 12-4 victory over Furman in the opening game of the day on Saturday morning at the Trojan Invitational.
Heflin's bunt single to lead off the bottom of the second ignited a four-run inning for Nicholls as the Colonels took advantage of an error, two bases loaded walks, and a run-scoring wild pitch to jump out to a 4-0 lead. Claire Sisco, who also batted in three runs on the day, highlighted a three-run bottom of the third with a two-run double to center field to extend the Nicholls lead to 7-0.
Furman got on the board with three runs in the top of the fourth inning.
AB Cipalla followed a hit batter and single with an RBI double to center field to get the Paladins on the board and
Ansley Chiang followed a
Rachel Hawkins' walk with a two-run single to trim the deficit to 7-3.
Nicholls immediately answered with three runs of its own in the bottom of the frame. Erin Krause lined a leadoff triple into the gap and scored on Aubrey Delatte's single before Heflin hammered a two-run homer to left field. Kayleigh Lugowski and Heflin delivered RBI singles in the bottom of the fifth to trigger the mercy rule.
Ashley Little earned the win for the Colonels to improve to 2-1 on the season. She allowed three runs on six hits on 3.1 innings of work while walking one batter and fanning four. Heflin finished 3-for-4 with three RBI while Sisco added two hits to drive in three runs.
Sophomore
Lily O'Bryan, making her first start of the season, suffered the loss for Furman to fall to 0-1.
Christina McCoy and Cipalla each collected two hits apiece for the Paladins.
Kennesaw State 16, Furman 7 (6 Inn.)
Kennesaw State pounded out 20 hits and scored 16 runs in six innings to down Furman, 16-7, in the Paladins' second game of the day on Saturday.
Hannah Harvey and Alora Bevily each recorded four hits while Ana Gore and Macie Howes drove in three runs apiece to spark the Owls' offensive outburst to improve to 4-8 on the season. Howes' homer run and Jojo Johnson's two-run double opened the scoring in the first inning before
Sylvia Burroughs contributed a sacrifice fly and
Kristyn Embler's RBI single pulled the Paladins within 3-2.
A sacrifice fly from Gore and RBI double from Howes extended the KSU lead to 5-2 in the second inning. The Owls added to their cushion with four more runs in the top of the fourth on five hits, highlighted by Howes' RBI double.
With Kennesaw State leading 10-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Cipalla started a three-run frame for Furman with an RBI double before
Christina McCoy came through with an RBI single, and Burroughs batted in a run with a double. KSU answered with six runs in the top of the sixth and the Owls escaped a bases loaded jam after two Paladins crossed the plate in the bottom of the frame.
Howes finished with two doubles and a homer while Harvey went 4-for-5 with three runs. Leah Jannakos allowed five runs on seven hits over 4.2 innings but picked up the win for the Owls to up her record to 3-0 on the year.
Embler took the loss for Furman after giving up 12 earned runs in 5.1 innings in the circle. She dropped to 1-5 on the season.
Furman totaled 11 hits for the game with two apiece coming from
Eden Frederick, Cipalla, Embler, and Chiang.
Furman (1-12) concludes play in the Trojan Invitational with a 12:30 p.m. first pitch against the host Troy Trojans on Sunday. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and fans can follow live statistics via StatBroadcast at FurmanPaladins.com.
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