Blossoms Take First in Conference

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   The Cotton Blossom softball team split with Henderson State Saturday at home. With the win and some help from other conference games, the Cotton Blossoms catapulted into first place in the west conference.

   In the first game, Meredith Heckel (Jr., Hot Springs) led off the inning, blasting a homer to start the scoring for the Cotton Blossoms. The next three batters all singled to load up the bases. Jenny Dunn (Jr., Adelaide, Australia) then hit a double to score two of the runners. With two outs in the inning, Lauren Brooks (Jr., West Monroe, La.) singled to score another runner, boosting UAM up 4-0 early.

   In the bottom of the fifth inning, Dunn led off with her a triple, a league leading fourth of the season.  Gemma Gibson (Jr., Dodd City, Texas) doubled to score Dunn and to increase the lead 5-0. Gibson scored later as well as two other unearned runs giving the Cotton Blossoms the win by the mercy rule, eight runs past the fifth inning in softball.

   Kate Brady (Jr., Longview, Texas) got her 14^th win of the season allowing only two hits and no runs in four innings.

   In the second game, Henderson State hit home runs in the second and third innings giving them a 2-0 edge over the Cotton Blossoms.  In the bottom of the third, Heckel singled to reach the bag and later moved to second base due to a wildly thrown pitch. Sarah Reed (Sr., McKinney, Texas) then jolted a ball over the right field fence, tying the game 2-2.

   Henderson State scored two runs in the fourth inning, three runs in the fifth inning and two more runs in the sixth inning giving them a 9-2 lead.    

   In the seventh inning, the Cotton Blossoms scored a single run from Dunn on a Brady double, ending the game with a loss, 9-3. Alison North (Fr., Marion, La.) got the loss in the decision giving up seven hits and four runs in three and two-thirds innings. The Cotton Blossoms used four pitchers in the loss.

   UAM travels to Decatur, Ala., for the Gulf South Conference Crossover April 12-15. They will play all of the teams from the east side of the conference. They open the crossover with West Alabama Thursday with a start time scheduled for 6 p.m.  


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