Olivia Donnally, Campus Carrier Asst. Online Editor
The Lady Vikings softball team is currently at 27 wins this season, a record that surpasses last year’s 20 wins out of 36 games.
This year’s team currently possesses the Berry softball record for most wins during a single season. Over the course of April the Lady Vikings have won eight out of 10 games and are currently on a five-game winning streak.
The winning momentum started on April 16 when the Lady Vikings played Birmingham-Southern in a double header and won both games. The scores of the two games were 4-3 and 3-0 respectively. These wins made the Lady Vikings record in the SAA (Southern Athletic Association) a winning record of 17-5.
After their win against Birmingham-Southern, the Lady Vikings learned that they had earned the inaugural SAA regular season title.
Throughout both games the Lady Vikings never lost their lead, even after the Birmingham-Southern Panthers rallied to earn their three runs in the first game. In the bottom of the ninth inning the Panthers earned two runs, making the score a close 4-3, and had the bases loaded.
At the start of the season senior third baseman Lindsey Campbell said, “Our team is different this year in the sense that we have a huge freshman class. This will help us greatly on the field.”
The talent in the freshman players was evident throughout the course of this game, as many of the big plays were made by the freshmen.
The Lady Vikings managed to finish the inning, preventing any additional runs by Birmingham-Southern by getting the final out with a caught pop-fly ball out to right field where freshman Shelby Smith made the catch.
Pitching for the game was freshman Alison Corando who took the win and improved her pitching record to 9-4. Throughout the game Corando let up two runs and four hits and struck out four batters.
The Lady Vikings then took the field to face LaGrange in a double header for their last home game during season. This game was the Lady Vikings’ senior night and ended the seniors’ last season with two wins against LaGrange.
The Lady Vikings won the opening game with a score of 14-0 and managed to rally in the nightcap to defeat LaGrange with a close score of 10-9. These two wins put the Lady Vikings with a final season record of 27-9 and an SAA record of 17-5.
Pitching for the women’s softball team in the first game was senior Caillee Shamoun who had a winning record of 11-3 this season for pitching. Shamoun pitched for five innings.
Sophomore Courtney Hodges managed a grand slam home run in the bottom of the fourth inning, which helped give the Lady Vikings nine runs through the course of that single inning. Additional hitters were junior Jessica Washington who made three hits and freshman Abby Daniels who made two.
In the second game, the Lady Vikings began with a two-run lead in the bottom of the first inning. However, LaGrange made a come back in the top of the third inning by bringing in five runs making the score 2-5. The Lady Vikings slowly began to come back from the loss and managed to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh inning and then win in the bottom of the eighth. Senior second baseman Lacey Herring brought in the final run with a RBI double to right field and won the game.
The Lady Vikings are now the number one seed and will compete in the SAA championship in Danville, Ky. on Friday. They will receive a first-round by as the top-seeded team and will then play the winner of the Millsaps-Centre game at 4 p.m.