Youngsville, La. – The Harding softball team split its two games on the first day of the Mardis Gras Invitational. The Lady Bisons defeated Delta State 6-3 but fell to Mississippi College 4-3 in 11 innings.
Harding moves to 1-1 on the season.
Delta State falls to 0-1 and Mississippi College improves to 1-0.
Game 1 (Harding 6, Delta State 3)
The Harding Lady Bisons took a 1-0 lead in the first inning and never trailed from there on the way to a 6-3 win over the Delta State Statesmen on Friday.
Sophomore Riley Price (1-0) started in the circle and picked up the win for Harding (1-0). The right-hander went six innings, allowing no walks and striking out five. Junior Abby Burch also made an impact in the circle for the Lady Bisons, throwing one shutout inning to get the save.
Offensively, the Lady Bisons were led by junior Jordan Cabana, who went 2-for-3 on the day with two doubles and two RBI. Senior Nicole Shano put together a noteworthy day at the plate as well, going 1-for-4 with a home run and an RBI. Sophomore Leigha Harris also contributed for Harding, putting together two hits in three trips to the plate while adding an RBI.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lady Bisons got the scoring started early, putting one run on the board in the bottom the first inning with the game still scoreless. Harding got an RBI single from Harris, scoring Shano from third base.
The Statesmen failed to push any runs across before the Lady Bisons offense got back to their scoring ways the next inning. Harding plated two runs off of Delta State pitching, punctuated by a run-scoring double off the bat of Cabana, which brought the score to 3-0 in favor of the Lady Bisons.
Harding held Delta State without a run before building their lead to 5-0 the following inning. The Lady Bisons scored two runs in the frame, the big hit being an RBI double from Cabana.
The Lady Bisons pushed across a run in the next inning on Shano's two-out solo homer off junior Madison Jenkins, bringing the Harding advantage to 6-0. Delta State put three runs on the scoreboard before the game was over, but the Lady Bisons still held on for the 6-3 win.
GAME NOTES
» Price struck out five Statesmen hitters.
» Four Lady Bisons had multiple hits in the ballgame.
» The Lady Bisons out-hit the Statesmen at a 10-8 clip.
» Harding went 4-for-7 (.571) with runners in scoring position.
» Harding pitchers limited Delta State to just 2-for-10 (.200) with runners in scoring position.
» Harding pitchers faced 29 Delta State hitters in the game, allowing seven ground balls and seven fly balls while striking out six.
» Delta State was led offensively by Jenkins, who went 2-for-3 with a double.
» Jenkins also led the Statesmen pitching staff, throwing six innings of six-run ball.
Game 2 (Mississippi College 4, Harding 3 – 11 inn.)
Junior Maegan Pistokache (0-1) took the loss in the circle for Harding (1-1). The right-hander went 10 innings, giving up two runs, zero earned, on four hits, allowing one walk and striking out five.
Junior Jordan Cabana led the way offensively for the Lady Bisons, going 1-for-5 in the ballgame with a double and two RBI. Senior Hanna Jones also went 1-for-5 with a double and an RBI. Senior Nicole Shano also helped out, going 2-for-4 for Harding with a double.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Trailing 2-0, the Lady Bisons first put runs on the board in the seventh inning. Harding scored twice on a two-run double off the bat of Cabana.
Both teams went scoreless in the eighth and ninth innings.
Mississippi College broke the tie in the 10th scoring a run on an RBI ground out. Harding answered back in the bottom of the inning when Hanna Jones hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored Leigha Harris.
Mississippi College scored the eventual game winner in the top of the 11th on a RBI single by McCall Lee.
GAME NOTES
» Harding left 10 runners stranded on base, including the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th.
» The Lady Bisons out-hit the Choctaws at an 8-6 clip.
» Harding pitchers limited Mississippi College to just 1-for-15 (.067) with runners in scoring position.
» Harding pitchers faced 41 Mississippi College hitters in the game, allowing 12 ground balls and 12 fly balls while striking out five.
» Mississippi College was led offensively by junior McCall Lee, who went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
» Freshman Camryn led the Choctaws pitching staff, throwing five innings.
Harding will continue the invitational Saturday taking on Midwestern State at 2 p.m., and No. 6 ranked Texas A&M-Kingsville at 7 p.m.
