APSU Women’s Softball
Oxford, MS – Austin Peay’s softball threaten late against South Alabama, in the final day of the Red and Blue Classic hosted by the University of Mississippi, but couldn’t get the big hit it needed in a 4-1 loss to the Jaguars.
Austin Peay (2-11) was trailing 4-0 heading into the top of the sixth inning, but got its first three hitters of the inning on to lead the bases.
Junior Amy Mills then flew out to medium left field for the first out, but senior Tiffany Smith followed the out by drawing a walk to force in Ryan with the Lady Govs first run of the day to cut the South Alabama (13-2) lead to 4-1.
But that would be as close as the Lady Govs would get, with the Jaguars bringing in Hannah Campbell to pitch in relief, who shut down the lady Govs rally by striking out freshman Lauren de Castro and senior Catie Cozart to end the inning.
For Campbell, it was her second save on the season, with Jaguars starting pitcher Lindsey Croft improving her record to 5-0 on the season.
The only other inning the Lady Govs had a runner in scoring position was in the top of the fifth inning, when Cozart reached on a one-out infield single and moved to second on a ground out by sophomore Morgan Brewer.
Red-shirt sophomore Shelby Norton, who got hit by a pitch to lead off the third inning was the only other Lady Gov to reach base.
South Alabama took the lead early against Lady Govs, scoring a run in the bottom of the first inning when Christian Crocker drew a base-loaded walk to bring in Jenny Stevens – who had opened the inning with a single.
The score would remain that way until the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Jaguars got a three-run home run to straight away center field by Stevens, with two outs, driving in Meghan Collins and Carolina Mendoza – who had reached on a hit by pitch and a walk.
Austin Peay is off until next Friday, when they head down to Woodstock, GA, to play in the Georgia Tech Buzz Classic.
