Softball wins first game, earns DH split at Georgetown

GEORGETOWN, Ky. - After dropping a pair of one-run games to open 2023, the Union softball team came out on the right end of a tight game in the opening game of a doubleheader at Georgetown Tuesday.

The Bulldogs rallied to earn their first win, 7-6 in the opener. The second game was less fruitful, as the Tigers jumped all over Union in the second, needing just five innings to earn an 11-0 win in the second.

GAME ONE

The Bulldog offense came alive with a four-run explosion in the seventh inning and needed every run to survive a late Tiger comeback.

Kayla Richardson put Union up 3-2 with an RBI single, a hit that was immediately followed by RBI singles by Shaylin Lewis and Ariel Dailey before Lewis scored on a wild pitch to give the Bulldogs a four-run lead while needing just three outs for their first win.

Georgetown didn't make it easy, as an Ashley Shelton RBI single was followed by a two-run Cassie Rannells single to cut the deficit to 6-5 and brought the winning run to the plate with just one out. But that's as close as the comeback would get as reliever Elly Souther came in and got the save by recording consecutive ground outs to end the game.

The Bulldogs fell down 2-0 early before tying the game on a Selina Tavarez RBI single in the fifth and a Sarah Lowe home run -- her third in as many games, in the sixth.

GAME TWO

Already up 5-0, the Tigers batted around during a six-run, five-hit third inning to secure the run-rule win.

The Tigers, who are 27-5 against Union since 2007, held a 9-2 hit advantage, with Leea Cole and Lowe singles the only hits the Bulldogs mustered in the second game.

Now 1-3, the Bulldogs play doubleheaders on back-to-back days, starting with a trip to Cumberland (Tenn.) at 1 p.m. Friday