GULF SHORES, Ala. -- After coming out on the wrong end of a pair of one-run battles on Saturday, the William Woods University softball team closed out the Gulf Coast Invitational with wins over Bethel College and preseason number five Brenau University. The Owls bested Bethel 5-4 in nine innings and held on for a 2-1 win over Brenau.
Kelsey Schulte (Honey Creek, Mo.) got the start for the Owls in the first game, scattering four hits over six innings of work, with two strikeouts. Mackenzie Bowden (Hartsburg, Mo.) came on in relief, pitching a scoreless seventh to send the game to extra innings.
Bethel scored in the top of the eighth, with a two-out single pushing across the go-ahead run. The Owls answered in the bottom of the eighth, with
Lindsey LeCuru (Jefferson City, Mo.) moving to third courtesy of a wild pitch after starting as the International Tiebreaker runner on second.
Ilissa Facchini (Tulare, Calif.) picked up a walk to put runners on the corner. A pair of popups to short left the Owls with just one out to level the score, but
Macy Wierschem (Waterloo, Ill.) would take care of business with a single up the middle, caroming off the Bethel pitcher, to score LeCuru.
In the top of the ninth, William Woods managed to turn a pair of busted plays into highlights and escape the inning unscathed. Wierschem overthrew Bowden on a return to the circle, and the Bethel runner broke for third. A quick thinking play from Facchini turned the error into a pickoff as she threw to third for the out. With two outs in the inning, Bethel put a runner on first with a single. As the runner tried to steal second, the throw went wide, rolling to center. Schulte was backing up the play and threw to third, but
Caroline Sicht couldn't come up with the handle and the runner continued toward home. Covering, Bowden made the snap throw to the plate, catching the runner in a 1-2-5-3 rundown for the third out of the inning.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Owls were able to capitalize on their second bases-loaded opportunity of the inning, with LeCuru hitting a game-winning single through the hole on the left side.
Nicole Hamdorf (Grain Valley, Mo.) started the inning on second, advanced by
Kacey Scharnhorst (St. Charles, Mo.).
Megan Cooper (St. Louis, Mo.) drew a walk to load the bases.
Ashley DePew (Highland, Ill.) reached on a fielder's choice to short, as Hamdorf was forced out at home. LeCuru ended the game on the next at-bat with a sharply-hit single through the hole, scoring Scharnhorst.
In the second game, LeCuru continued to shine, scoring both runs in the 2-1 win over #5 Brenau.
The Owls opened up the scoring in the third, with LeCuru and Schulte drawing walks around a sacrifice from Facchini, with Sicht belting a single to score LeCuru from second.
In the fifth, LeCuru led off the inning with a double, with a Facchini single leaving runners on the corner. Sicht hit a grounder to first and was tagged out by the Brenau first baseman, but LeCuru was fast enough to score from third on the play.
Brenau was able to pull one run back in the sixth inning, but Bowden finished off the fifth-ranked team in the country to earn her second win of the day in a complete-game effort. She struck out eight and allowed just five hits in the contest.
With the 2-0 record on the day, the Owls won the Bronze Bracket at the Gulf Coast Invitational and moved to 8-9 on the season. Next up for William Woods is a rematch against William Carey University. First pitch for the Wednesday doubleheader is set for 4 p.m.
