MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — Walters State continued to pound the softball Wednesday afternoon in sweeping visiting Catawba Valley with both games shortened to five innings by the run rule.
The Lady Senators spotted the North Carolina club a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the opener and then roared back with 10 runs in the second highlighted by former Jefferson County star Jessica Odom's grand slam and went on to a 15-3 rout.
In the nightcap, Walters State exploded for eight runs on nine hits in the bottom of the first and coasted to the victory.
Coach Larry Sauceman's club ran its winning streak to a season-high five straight and improved to 13-7 for the season.
The Red Hawks slipped to 10-8 on the year.
In the opener, the Lady Senators collected a dozen hits and also took advantage of nine walks and a couple of Catawba Valley errors. Every batter in the starting lineup had at least one safety.
After the first-inning uprising in the second tilt, Walters State finished with 16 hits as Reagan Miller had a pair of doubles and a single. Kaitlyn Harper added a home run and single while Sydney Fox, Macey Hefner, Kallyn Newport and Alaina Morris all got two hits.
Sauceman said, "It was two good wins for us today. Their pitching is pretty good but we swung the bats and got them out a little bit. I thought it was a little better effort today. We hit the ball and played good defense."
After his team gave up 42 runs in a weekend series, Sauceman admitted he was a little apprehensive when the Red Hawks scored three times in the first inning of the opener. "They hit that home run and I thought, here we go again.
"But it didn't turn out that way Morgan Riffle didn't give them anything else and then Kenna Kap did a good job on the mound in the second game."
Riffle and Kap both improved their records to 6-3 in going all five innings. Riffle allowed only four hits and retired the final seven batters she faced. She gave up a walk in the first and struck out two on the day.
Kap gave up six hits and struck out two while not walking a single batter.
"We're happy to get two wins," Sauceman closed. "We've just got to keep working and continue to get better. That's what we have to do throughout the season."
Newport, Miller and Jenica Brown were the only Lady Senators with two hits in the opening game win.
Kelsea DeJarnette's homer in the first was the big hit for the Red Hawks. Losing pitcher Chesney Millsaps had a pair of singles.
After the first-inning homer, the Lady Senators didn't score in the first but got themselves rolling in the second. Newport and Miller had singles and Olivia Wheeler walked to load the bases.
Odom then smacked a long home run to start the big outburst. Harper and Fox added run-scoring hits with Miller, Harper and Brown drawing bases-loaded walks to force in runs.
Walters State added four in the third when Newport had a double and Miller, Wheeler and Brown all added hits. Hefner singled in the final marker in the fourth.
In the second contest Harper, Fox and Hefner all had two hits in the very first inning as the Lady Senators paraded 14 hitters to the plate. One of Harper's was a two-run homer that put the final two runs on the scoreboard.
Walters State plated three unearned runs in the second and scored twice in each of the final two frames.
Morris came off the bench for her two hits while Santana Hall added a hit as a pinch hitter.
NEXT UP
WSCC returns to TCCAA play this weekend when they host two doubleheaders against Southwest Tennessee. Friday's two-for is set to begin a 2 p.m. Saturday's twin-bill begins at noon.