Despite squeezing out only three hits in the contest, the Mississippi State softball team pulled out a win over the visiting UAB Blazers Tuesday night.MSU (28-19) topped the Blazers (27-23) for the second time this season, this time earning a 4-1 win, as compared to a 5-0 shutout nearly one month ago.
The Bulldogs spread out their four runs over four different innings, earning each run by “small-ball” type play.”
“We got a great pitching again from Kelli [Miller],” MSU head coach Jay Miller said. “Sara [Hickerson] came in and finished off that last inning. I thought we were too anxious at the plate, but we were able to manufacture a few things on the bases. But overall, we need to start swinging the bat better.”
Senior pitcher Kelli Miller started for the Bulldogs and gave up only one run on five hits through her six innings of work. She would go on to earn the win in the ballgame, improving her record to 12-8.
Sara Hickerson earned her eighth save of the season, appearing in the seventh inning to retire the Blazers three times to end the game.
In the first inning, MSU junior centerfielder Hayle Guess reached base on a walk issued by Blazers starter Jennifer Nelson.
One batter later, after Guess stole second, junior shortstop Courtney Bures drove a double into left field, scoring Guess easily and putting the Dawgs on top early 1-0.
After both teams went scoreless in the second and third innings, UAB responded in the fourth, as Jennifer Nelson helped her own cause by driving in the Blazers’ lone RBI, tying the game at 1-1. MSU would go on to score one run in each of the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings.
The fourth inning run also came off the bat of Courtney Bures, but this time, a bunt was the RBI-grabber.
In the fifth inning, UAB’s defense began to collapse, scoring its first error in the game. With two outs, Nakita Boyce reached on an error by pitcher Jennifer Nelson, scoring Michelle Kinney, who walked earlier in the inning. Boyce was later caught stealing in the sixth inning, senior outfielder Katie Cooley advanced to second on a UAB passed ball, the Blazers’ second error of the contest. Several pitches later, sophomore infielder Sammie Jo Bailey hit a single, scoring Cooley for the final run of the mid-week contest.
With the win, the Bulldogs improved to 28-19 overall, just two games out of their record a season ago. Through 47 games in 2006, MSU boasted a 30-17 overall record.
However, the Dawgs went on to go winless through the month of April last season. So far, they have put up a 5-4 record in their fourth-month schedule.