Eagles Softball Split with Tennessee Wesleyan

David Finney | photo by Gian-Luca Fahling

Waleska, GA - The Bulldogs of Tennessee Wesleyan were bringing in a solid 7-1 AAC record into tonight's midweek doubleheader match-up. The Eagles were undefeated in conference play winning all four of their conference games and they had a six-game win-streak as well. The Eagles would get the bats out in game one as they would score 10 runs with the final going to the Eagles 10-3. In game two, the Eagles would run into a little trouble early and they had to play catch up the rest of the way. Game two went to the Bulldogs, 6-2.

Game One

Ally Andriano would get the start in this game and she would go all seven innings only allowing 2 hits and striking out 3 Bulldog batters. The Eagles would give up 3 runs in the game, but the bats did their job at scoring plenty of runs.

The first 3.5 innings of this game would be a pitching duel as the batters from both sides struggled to get on base and then the Eagles opened up in the bottom of the fourth. Alexis Teems would reach first on an error by Tennessee Wesleyan's second baseman and then Emily Loveless and Jill Martinet both singled to left back-to-back. The bases were loaded and Alanna Dunson was walked sending Teems home. Next, Lauren Parker would SAC fly to right field which scored Loveless, and move Martinet to third making the score 2-0. The inning still wasn't over and Kalyn Jinks came to the plate and singled to left, which scored Martinet and moved Dunson to second. A wild pitch moved Jinks and Dunson to second and third and then the highlight of the inning happened. Ansley Evans stepped up and cleared the bases with a three-run home run which made the score 6-0 at the end of four.

The Eagles would pick up another run in the bottom of the fifth when Emily Loveless doubled knocking in Alexis Teems. After the fifth, the Eagles would have a 7-1 lead. Int the bottom of the sixth, the Eagles would do their final scoring of the game. Loveless would double again which score Teems and Alexis Griffith. Later in the inning, Alanna Dunson would double to left which would bring in Loveless. The score would be 10-3 in favor of the Eagles. Andriano would finish out the top of the seventh strong securing the win for the Eagles.

Game Two

Whitney Shepherd would get the starting spot for the second game, but she would only get in one and a half innings before being pulled. Shepherd had two strikeouts for the game. Ally Andriano would come in to pitch in the top of the second to help out Shepherd. Andriano would go the rest of the way striking out 2 batters and allowing only one run on two hits. It was not the best game pitching for the Eagles, however, once things settled down - they did fine and held down the Bulldog batters once again. Tennessee Wesleyan was able to get 4 across the plate after the first inning and picked up another run in the second and fifth innings.

The batters for the Eagles would struggle some in this game against some decent pitching by Tennessee Wesleyan, however, they did have their moments and they would create a huge threat in the bottom of the sixth which could have made the outcome of the game very different. 

Emily Loveless was able to score in the bottom of the first after reaching first on an error by the Bulldogs. She would score when Alanna Dunson singled to center. The Eagles would go on a long drought of scoring until the threat in the bottom of the sixth. The Eagles were able to load the bases with two outs on them, however, they would not be able to get these runs home after they grounded out to end the inning. Reinhardt did get one more in the bottom of the seventh when Teems singled to left and scored Evans. The Eagles would line out and ground out to end the game with Tennessee Wesleyan winning, 6-2.

Overall, it was a good outing against a solid Tennessee Wesleyan team, however, the Eagles had their chances in the second game to get the doubleheader sweep. Reinhardt is playing solid right now and they will look to continue building up their conference record this weekend when they play conference opponents Milligan on Saturday and Montreat on Sunday. After playing one more doubleheader against Bryan on March 29th, the Eagles will return to Reinhardt on Thursday, March 31st to play Brevard College.