March 25, 2007

JACKSON -- After dropping the first game in a 4-game set against the visitors from Austin College on Saturday, the Millsaps softball team rebounded to win the final three games of the series, including a twinbill sweep on Sunday, to improve to 3-1 in SCAC play and 8-16 overall.

The Millsaps bats were hot and the pitching in the circle was solid all day, as the Majors grinded out 18 runs off 25 hits while holding Austin College to only four runs off a combined six hits for a pair of wins 6-0 and 12-4 (5).

Freshman Kasey Thibodeaux tossed her first complete game shutout to earn her second win of the year in Game 1, holding the Kangaroo bats to only three hits while scattering two walks and two strikeouts in seven innings of work.

Freshman Jennifer McKinley paced the Millsaps offense, going 2-for-3 from the plate and launching her second homerun of the year while Sam Hill, Renee Hebert, and Erica Douglas eached produced multi-hit games.

Aubrey Larmour (5-7) was hit with the loss for the 'Roos after surrendering four runs off seven hits in only three innings of work. Amanda Stretcher pitched the final three innings in relief, scattering four hits and one earned run.

In the weekend closer, 14 hits contributed to 12 Millsaps runs, as the Majors plated two runs in the first, two in the second, six in the third, one in the fourth and one in the fifth for the 8-run win in five innings.

After surrendering three Austin College runs in the top of the first frame, freshman hurler Brittney McAllister (6-2) and the rest of the Majors settled into their groove, answering with 12 of the final 13 runs in the game for their third consecutive victory.

McAllister picked up her sixth consecutive victory of the season after scattering four runs off four Austin hits in five innings of work.

Eight different Majors picked up a hit in the win, with McKinley (3-for-4, 2 RBIs, HR, R), Thibodeaux (3-for-3, 2 RBIs, 2 R, HR) and senior Josie Manley (3-for-4, 2 R, RBI) leading the attack. Hebert and Douglas had a pair of RBIs apiece while Jessica Clincy picked up her lone hit on an RBI-triple to rightfield.

Millsaps will travel to Conway, Ark., for its next conference series, facing off with Hendrix College in a pair of doubleheaders on March 31 and April 1. Saturday's first pitch is slated for 1 p.m. with Sunday's game scheduled for a noon start.