COLUMBUS, Miss. — The Mississippi University for Women softball team improved to 2-2 on the season with two wins during the first day of The W Invitational round-robin tournament. The Owls opened the day with a 3-2 victory over Covenant College and followed with an 8-6 win against Sewanee. The same matchups will be repeated Saturday to conclude the event.
In the opener, Gillion Eaves led off with a single and advanced to third on two steals. Addison Owen’s RBI single scored Eaves, giving MUW a 1-0 lead. Brooklyn Rhodes added an RBI double to make it 2-0. Covenant scored a run in the fourth, but the Owls responded in the bottom of the fifth with Eaves’ bunt single, Madison York’s infield single, and Owen’s RBI single to extend their lead to 3-1. Covenant narrowed the gap to 3-2 in the sixth on a wild pitch, but Trinity Garvin finished the game with a scoreless seventh to earn her first collegiate save.
MUW starter Phallyn Clark pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and two earned runs with two strikeouts. Garvin pitched 1 2/3 innings, permitting one hit. The top four batters — Eaves, York, Owen, and Rhodes — combined for nine hits and scored all three runs while driving in three.
In game two, the Owls overcame a 4-3 deficit with a big four-run fourth and a five-run fifth. Sasha King went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, including an RBI single in the fourth. Kaylee Crawford’s two-run double and Brianna Byrd’s two-run triple highlighted the fifth-inning rally. King added another RBI single later in the game to make it 8-4. Sewanee scored two runs in the sixth off reliever Rachel Etheridge, who pitched two innings with one strikeout. MUW starter Rhodes went five innings, allowing four earned runs on five hits, with six strikeouts.
