Army Earns Third Straight Win; Tops Georgia Southern, 7-5

Sunday, February 9

Statesboro, GA

11:30 AM

Army West Point

4-1

Georgia Southern

3-1

Army

Georgia Southern

Army Earns Third Straight Win; Tops Georgia Southern, 7-5

February 09, 2020 | Softball

Box Score

STATESBORO, Ga. – The Army West Point softball team used two runs in the top of the seventh inning to defeat Georgia Southern, which entered the contest with a record of 3-0, by a score of 7-5. This is the Black Knights' first 4-1 start to a season since 2011.

With the score tied knotted a five a piece in the top of the seventh, Megan Muffett sent a sharply hit ball to Georgia Southern's third baseman, who was unable to corral it. Madi Gilmore came around to score from second base on the error. Alicyn Grete then sent home Brooke Tuttle to give Army the two-run lead on the next at bat with sacrifice fly to right field.

ARMY HIGHLIGHTS AND GAME NOTES

Dating back to last season, the Black Knights have reached the five-run mark in their last six games. This represents the longest such streak for Army since it scored at least five runs in six straight games from April 8-17 in the 2012 season.
Ally Snelling ????has already matched her season total of home runs from last season with two.
Snelling was 11-for-20 from the plate throughout the Bash in the Boro tournament, totaling seven RBIs and rounding the bases a total of seven times.
Taylor Livingston, Snelling and Madi Gilmore each scored two runs.
Livingston has scored a team-leading eight runs this season.
Gilmore also added two RBIs to improve her season total to seven, which is tied with Snelling for the most on the team.
Alicyn Grete made her first career start in the circle for the Black Knights. The freshman from Niceville, Fla., struck out eight batters and allowed four earned runs in her six innings of work.
Five of Army's seven runs came with two outs.
In the last two games, Army has scored a combined total of nine runs in the fifth inning. The Knights had three runs in the fifth against the Eagles and six against ETSU on Saturday.
This was the first all-time meeting between the two schools.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Eagles jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first after Bailee Wilson poked a 2 RBI single out to right field. After that, Grete struck out the next four batters she faced.
The Black Knights found themselves in a bit of off a jam in the bottom of the third. Georgia Southern had runners in scoring position with just one out. Wilson flew out to right field and strong throw from Grace Snyder to plate held the runners at second and third. After walking the next batter to load the bases, the Cadets got out of the jam unscathed.
Snelling went yard to lead off the fourth inning, jumping on the second pitch of the bat and launching over the fence in dead center field. The homer cut Georgia Southern's lead to 2-1.
Army took the lead in the top of the fifth with a strong two-out rally. After Livingston reached on an error to start the inning, the next two Army batters were retired. Snelling worked a walk and then stole second base with Gilmore at the plate. Gilmore ripped a shot down the left field line on a 2-2 count, which scored Livingston and Snelling to push Army ahead 3-2. Later on in the inning, Emily Ballesteros hit home Gilmore with an RBI single up the middle to make the score 4-2.
Georgia Southern got a run back in bottom half of the fifth. Mekhia Freeman started off the inning with a double to the gap in left center field. She later came around to score on an RBI single from Wilson to cut Army's lead to 4-3.
In the top of the sixth, Drayton knocked in Livingston with an RBI single up the middle of the field with two outs put Army ahead 5-3.
The Eagles loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the sixth. They managed to score two runs to tie the game at 5-5 heading into the seventh.
Army earned back its two-run lead with Tuttle and Gilmore rounding the bases. Jolie Duong came on for the save in the bottom of the seventh. After surrendering a lead off double, the Black Knights recorded three straight outs.