The softball team soared at the Homewood Suites Challenge in Raleigh, North Carolina, over the weekend, winning four of five games while outscoring opponents 34-17 across all five.
Winning 12 of their last 14 games heading into the weekend, the Owls opened the competition with a doubleheader on Friday, March 23, beating Niagara 6-5. They took an early 3-0 lead, but three runs in the second and third innings leveled the score at 3-3. The teams would trade two more scores before the Owls sealed the victory, courtesy of an Olivia Tamewitz walk with the bases loaded.
The second game of the day saw KSU beat Marist 9-6. Marist came into the game at 8-16 on the year. After a slow start, both teams sat at two runs going into the bottom of the fifth, but the Owls pulled away in that inning on the back of five runs scored. Meredith Milam batted in two on a single while an error on the Marist side allowed for two more KSU runners to find home plate. The Owls would score two more in the game to finish it off, going into Saturday undefeated.
Saturday’s game brought the only defeat of the weekend for the Owls who played the tournament’s host, North Carolina State, falling 4-3. Although KSU struck first in the top of the third inning by way of a mishandled pitch, three successive runs by the Wolfpack, accompanied by an error in the fourth, proved to be insurmountable for the Owls.
The competition’s final day featured two games for the Owls, both rematches from prior games. The first game featured Marist, a game that KSU won decidedly 8-0. KSU was led by freshman Patricia Awald who batted in five runs with two home runs. Pitcher Abigail Green made a major contribution, pitching a one-hit game.
Competition closed on Sunday with a rematch against the Wolfpack. Tamewitz and Noelle Winkles combined for four RBIs while pitcher Alley Cutting struck out seven batters, paving the way for an 8-2 victory for the Owls who came out of the tournament with a 4-1 record.
The Owls, whose record now sits at 22-11, will travel to Athens on Wednesday, March 28, to play the University of Georgia at 6 p.m.
