ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – For the first time since an abrupt end to last season, the University of West Georgia softball team took the field on Friday, opening the 2021 campaign with a split on day one of the Flagler Invitational.
The Wolves began the season with a 3-0 win over the host squad Flagler, before falling in the nightcap 5-4 to Georgia Southwestern on a walkoff by the Hurricanes.
GAME ONE (vs. Flagler)
Sophomore pitcher
Kya Draper needed only one run in the opening game of 2021, but the Wolves got three for good measure. Draper pitched a complete game shutout, allowing four hits and striking out two while walking none.
West Georgia got an early run of support for Draper, as
Kristyn Nix drove in the season's first run, scoring
Hannah Scarbrough who led the game off with a walk.
It was the fourth inning before West Georgia pushed across another run. In that frame, Nix led off with a walk, stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by Flagler's catcher, Kyleigh Taylor. Nix then came in to score as
Allie Parkerson reached on a fielder's choice. Another error moved Parkerson all the way to third, then scoring on a groundout by
Leslie Brogden.
The Wolves totaled six hits in the contest, with three coming from senior
Ashley Ellison. Nix and Parkerson each picked up RBIs in the win.
Draper earns her first win of the season, her third career complete game and the first shutout of her young career.
GAME TWO (vs. Georgia Southwestern)
After falling behind 4-0 after three innings, the Wolves made a comeback bid that fell short thanks to a GSW walkoff in the seventh inning.
The Wolves and Hurricanes were scoreless through two and a half innings, but in the bottom half, Kimmy Singer led off the GSW half of the inning with a double.
Lexi Close then got two outs before surrendering a two-run homer to Katelyn Wood.
After two more hits off of Close, senior lefty
Katie Foote would come on in relief and give up back-to-back singles, allowing two more runs before getting a strikeout to end the frame.
Back-to-back singles from
Jacie Arrington and
Cassie Henderson led off the top of the fourth for UWG, with Arrington eventually scoring on a RBI fielder's choice by senior
Kayla Hughes. A base running error on the part of the Wolves would squash the threat of any more damage in that frame.
After a scoreless bottom half from Foote, the Wolves tied it up in the top of the fifth.
Hannah Scarbrough ripped a double to the wall and moved to third on a sac bunt by
Ashley Ellison. Then in stepped
Jacie Arrington.
Arrington slugged the first UWG home run of the season, a towering two-run bomb to left center, tying the game at 4-4.
The Wolves got a pair of runners in scoring position in the top of the seventh, but failed to score with the three through five hitters up.
GSW used a two-out double and a walk-off single from Morgan Mullin to win it in the final frame.
Scarbrough and Arrington each had two hits in game two, accounting for four of UWG's six hits.
Ashley Ellison and
Cassie Henderson had the other two hits for West Georgia. The five through nine spots in the lineup were a combined 0-for-11.
Foote pitched 4.0 innings, taking the loss in the game. Close finished with 2.2 innings and five strikeouts.
Up Next
The Wolves begin the season 1-1 and will return to Flagler Field tomorrow to take on Flagler at 11 a.m. before wrapping up the opening weekend with a 6:30 p.m. game against Georgia Southwestern.
