JACKSON, Miss. – Maryville played first-place Belhaven about as tough as the Scots could have hoped and yet the host Blazers pulled off a Saturday sweep.
Belhaven rallied past Maryville in both games of a doubleheader, winning the opener 3-2 in 11 innings and then taking the nightcap 9-5.
The Scots led the first game 2-0 after
Sara Koonce blasted a two-out, two-run homer in the top of the sixth inning.
Brecca Williams singled and scored ahead of Koonce's team-leading fourth round-tripper of the season.
But Belhaven rallied in the last of the seventh. Macy Ziskin and Taylor Heaton both delivered RBI-doubles against Maryville's
Megan Ackerman to send the game to extras.
There was a rain delay of more than two hours in the top of the eighth, and then the teams advanced all the way to the 11th inning before Belhaven scratched across the winning run.
Ackerman and Belhaven's Kennedy Carruth both went the distance in the circle. Ackerman allowed seven hits and just one walk against eight strikeouts, while Carruth scattered four hits and struck out 16 while not walking a batter. Carruth improved to 12-4 and Ackerman is 8-9.
Early Lead in Nightcap
In Game 2, Maryville jumped in front 3-0. The Scots scored twice in the first on a Koonce RBI-double and
Ava Whitmire's run-scoring single. Maryville's run in the second inning came across on
Bailey Myers' two-out RBI-single.
Belhaven grabbed a 5-3 lead but then
Paige Dickinson delivered a two-run single in the fourth to tie things at 5-5. The host Blazers scored another four runs in the fifth and held on from there.
Kennedy Henry took the loss for Maryville, falling to 3-2. Heaton earned the victory in relief for the Blazers and is 1-1.
The Blazers pushed their winning streak to seven games, improving to 22-11 overall and 12-2 in the Collegiate Conference of the South. Maryville saw its season-high six-game win streak come to a halt and dropped to 18-13 and 8-4.
The Scots have three home doubleheaders this week: Tuesday at 2 against LaGrange, Thursday at 1 versus Centre and Saturday at noon against Piedmont.
