SWOSU softball found a win against OBU this past week to avoid a sweep by the Tigers. This win was a major need to pick the Dawgs up from a losing streak of six.
The game was broken open early by the Bulldogs in the bottom of the second. They found three runs off multiple singles. Everyone was aggressive on the base path, giving the Bulldogs the advantage they needed. This was some of the strongest hitting from SWOSU. They finally found a way to work together in the line-up, and everyone knew exactly what their job was when they stepped into the box: get my runner to the next bag. It was single after single that got them these runs, but they knew they still had five more innings to be able to secure this win.
Now in the bottom of the fourth, the Bulldogs managed to find one more run to give them a 4-0 lead. This run came from a solo shot over the wall by No. 3 Maddie Rahon.
No. 0 Blaire Gentry was starting on the mound and was throwing up zeros in the circle, not giving up a single run until the top of the fifth. This was when Ouachita Baptist finally responded with a four-run inning of their own. This didn’t stop Gentry; she trusted her defense and her catcher and got herself out of that inning. It was then time for her offense to have her back, and they did. The Tigers were cracking under pressure. No. 20 Josie Oakley had reached first base on yet another single in the outfield gap. No. 12 Taylor McMahon was then up to the plate, where she hit a hard ground ball to the shortstop. This seemed like it was going to be an easy play for the Tigers, but the second baseman couldn’t stay on the bag to get the force out. Oakley then succeeded in taking third base while the second baseman was still upset about the call. No. 9 Taylor McKee stepped into the box and knew exactly what her job was to do, get Oakley home. She hit a groundball, giving Oakley just enough time to make it home to give SWOSU the lead, 5-4.
Gentry then locked in on the mound and put up two more innings worth of zeros, not allowing the Tigers a chance to get close. The game ended with a Bulldog win of 5-4. This win showed the grit this team has and the drive they can have if they piece it all together.
This was the second game of the series. The Bulldogs came back out the next day in hopes of a series win, but despite a strong effort, they fell to a 5-6 loss to the Tigers.
With now only a few series left in their season, SWOSU needs to find some more wins. They are hoping to do this when they travel to Arkadelphia, Arkansas, April 17-18th for a series against Henderson State University.
