Mobile, AL – The Austin Peay State University (APSU) softball team split its first games at the Jaguar Challenge, Friday afternoon at Jaguar Field, with the Governors defeating Evansville, 4-2, before falling to the tournament host South Alabama, 8-2.
Austin Peay 4, Evansville 2
The Governors would jump out to a 1-0 lead versus the Aces in the bottom of the second inning on a two-out RBI single by Bailey Shorter, scoring Emily Harkleroad, who had opened the inning with a single.
Evansville (4-3) would tie the game, 1-1 in the top of the third, but Austin Peay responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to take the lead for good, 4-1.
Lexi Osowski would open the scoring rally with a single and then score all the way around from first on a double by Drew Dudley, followed an out later, with Dudley scoring on a double by Brett Jackson.
The Govs final run of the inning came on an Evansville error, which allowed pinch runner Katie Keen to score.
Those runs would be enough to make APSU starter Harley Mullins (1-1) the winning pitcher, as she went the first four innings, giving up just one run on two hits and four walks while striking out four.
Harkleroad would pitch the fifth inning for the Govs, giving up a run in her first college action in the circle, before giving way to Shelby Harpe, who pitched the final two shutout innings to pick up her first career save.
South Alabama 8, Austin Peay 2
Walks and an error came back to haunt Austin Peay State University versus South Alabama (2-5), as all four of the walks given up to Jaguars hitters scored, as well as an unearned run that reached via an first-inning error accounting for five of the Jaguars eight total runs scored.
The first Govs run came in the top of the first, as they got back-to-back-back hits from Osowski, Dudley and Harkleroad, while the other APSU run came in the fifth inning off a RBI double by Shorter, who drove in Brooke Pfefferle, who had opened the inning with a single then got into scoring position by stealing second.
Inside the Boxscore
Harley Mullins picked up her first Division I victory versus Evansville.
Shelby Harpe earned her first career save, in her first save opportunity.
Kelsey Gray picked up her first career hit versus South Alabama.
Bailey Shorter and Emily Harkleroad are the only two Govs to record hits in all four games this season.
Govs recorded three doubles in the Evansville game, the first time they have done that as a team since March 24th, 2019 at Eastern Illinois.
Brooke Pfefferle’s stolen base versus South Alabama marks her 14th career steal without being thrown out.
The 11 hits versus Evansville is the Govs first double-digit hit game of the season.
APSU Coach Kassie Stanfill Statements
On the (pitching) staff win versus Evansville
“We’ve been talking about pitching as a staff and today was the first time we were actually able to see it. Everybody came in and knew their job and did their job, so being able to see all three of them go out there and see of the different individual things they do was very nice.”
On the offense coming around
“After the Chattanooga games we decided we’re going to get our swings off and that’s one thing we really talked about this past week. We told them we want them to swing and put the ball in play hard and today they did that, they were aggressive and in played off. We had a lot of quality at bats in both games.”
Next Up For APSU Softball
The Austin Peay State University softball team (2-2) will continue play in the Jaguar Challenge on Saturday, facing Louisiana Tech at 10:00am, before having a rematch with South Alabama at 2:30pm.