LAGRANGE, Ga. -- After not playing for nearly two weeks, mostly due to heavy rain, the Covenant Lady Scots softball team put its perfect 4-0 record on the line against Great South Athletic Conference foe LaGrange College. Unfortunately, the Lady Scots return home with two blemishes on their record as they were swept by the Lady Panthers by scores of 5-3, and 6-3 Saturday afternoon. With the losses, Covenant drops to 4-2 on the year. Meanwhile, LaGrange improves its season record to 4-4.
In game one, it was a scoreless tie until the top of the 3rd inning when Covenant scored twice. Sonja Townsend was hit by a pitch and Christine Core followed that up with a single to put runners on first and third. After Core stole second base, Beth Harris singled to left field that plated both Townsend and Core, making it 2-0 Lady Scots.
LaGrange got on the board in the bottom of the 3rd with 3 runs of their own off Covenant starter Chelsea Krafft. The Lady Panthers started the inning with two straight singles and then loaded the bases on a third single with one out. Laura Webber then hit a sacrifice fly to center field scoring one and that was followed up by Becca Abernathy's 2-RBI single to put LaGrange in the lead at 3-2.
Covenant would come back and tie the score in the 6th inning with help from an error by LaGrange to start the inning. Kristen Walker then singled home pinch runner Claire Settle with one out to tie the game. But in the bottom half of the inning, LaGrange scored two more times with RBI hits from Katie Ison and Megan Wing to give the Lady Panthers the lead for good at 5-3.
Krafft was saddled with her first loss of the season as she sees her pitching record go to 2-1. She did strike out 7 LaGrange hitters in the complete-game effort.
In game two, LaGrange scored single runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings to take a 2-0 lead. Covenant would get one run back in the 4th inning after Jenni Jobe singled to start the inning and worked her way around and scored on a passed ball.
But the Lady Panthers would break open the game in the bottom of the 4th inning by scoring four times. LaGrange's Katie Hein capped off the outbreak with a 2-RBI double that made it 6-2 in favor of the home team.
The Lady Scots would try to rally back in the top of the 5th inning, with help from Courtney Wagoner and her 2-RBI double to right-center field that scored Harris and Townsend and cut the LaGrange lead down to 6-3. But again, the pitching of the Lady Panthers was able to shut down the Covenant offense and stymie any attempt at a comeback in the last two innings.
It was a tough day at the plate for the Lady Scots, compared to the previous four games this season, as they could only score 6 runs on 9 hits. Beth Harris was the only Covenant player with more than one hit on the day as she went 2-8 with 2 RBIs and a run scored. Harris also pitched the final 2.1 innings in game two and allowed one hit while striking out one.
Covenant will play its next doubleheader on Tuesday, March 15 at Warner Park in Chattanooga against Birmingham Southern College. Game one is set to start at 4:00pm.
