CARROLLTON, Ga. - The UWG softball team slugged eight home runs over 11 innings of softball, run-ruling Fort Valley State in both games of Wednesday's non-conference doubleheader.
West Georgia (18-29) won game one 14-1 in five innings before pulling away in the sixth to win game two, 8-7 over FVSU (25-14).
GAME ONE: West Georgia 14, Fort Valley State 1
West Georgia hit a total of five home runs in the opener, pounding out 14 runs on 14 hits to snap Fort Valley's 13-game winning streak and their own seven-game skid.
Emerson Miller led off the second with a home run to put the Wolves up 1-0, and then after loading the bases, West Georgia got three more off a bases-clearing triple from Izzy Pinto.
UWG then added two more in the bottom of the third as R.J. Janke drew a walk and Madison Vandergriff homered, extending the lead to 6-0. Fort Valley State would respond with a solo shot in the top of the fourth before UWG opened it up with an eight spot in their half.
Megan Waites scored the seventh run on a single, a two base fielding error and a throwing error, and then Blaire Bizette singled home Pinto, and then Makayla Register slugged her sixth home run of the season making it 10-1. The next long ball came from Janke, a solo home run and the 24th of her career pushing the lead to 11-1. After Vandergriff reached on an error, Jacelyn Lahr kept it going with a home run of her own, and the final run scored on a pinch hit single by Jadyn Tummins.
UWG starter Marissa Thompson then slammed the door shut in the fifth to end the game in run-rul fashion. Thompson allowed the one run on three hits while striking out three.
Pinto led the UWG offense with a 3-for-3 game with three RBIs. Waites and Vandergriff also had two hits while Register, Vandergriff, and Lahr each had two RBIs.
GAME TWO: West Georgia 15, Fort Valley State 7
Fort Valley State led in the second game of the twin bill, 1-0 before UWG put up six in the second to take a lead they would never relinquish, even though FVSU would pull back within one.
Three straight walks loaded the bases with one out and then Addison Sturdivant delivered a single to get the Wolves on the board, and then Pinto drove in one on a sacrifice fly before a two-RBI double by Blaire Bizette and a two-run home run by Rylee Green.
FVSU then got four in the third on three hits and an error to get it back to 6-5 and the Wolves responded with a single run on Tamia Young's sacrifice fly.
Bizette and Green went back-to-back in the fourth inning to stretch the lead to 9-5, before FVSU got two more in the fifth to claw back into in at 9-7.
West Georgia then exploded for six runs in the sixth to end the game early. It was Bizette leading off with a double before scoring on a Rylee Green single and an error. Vandergriff then picked up a single to score another. UWG would then load the bases on a hit batsmen and a walk before three straight singles from Zekylah Boyd, Hardison and Sturdivant drove in the final runs and accounted for the eight run margin.
Three Wolves, Sturdivant, Bizette and Green each had three hits and three RBIs while Green had the two home runs. The Wolves had 15 hits as a team in the game two win.
Elizabeth McAbee picked up the win in the circle, pitching three innings in relief.
UP NEXT
West Georgia travels to Mississippi College for a three-game GSC set this weekend in Clinton, Mississippi.
