HARTSVILLE, S.C. - The Coker College softball team picked up a crucial sweep of Anderson on Saturday (Apr. 20) as they kept their hopes of making the SAC Softball Championship alive. The Cobras won game one 6-5 in eight innings and took the finale 8-4.
Maria Williamson put the Cobras on the board early with a solo shot to left field and the lead held until the fourth when Anderson added an unearned run. The Trojans exploded for four more in the top of the fifth to pull out in front 5-1. Ashley Meckley pulled two back with a clutch two-run home run before Anna Gluhosky and Lauren DeWitt each drive in a run to tie the ballgame back up. As the game headed to the eight, senior Brianna Strickland walked it off with a sacrifice fly to left that plated Cierra Watts and gave the Cobras the 6-5 win.
Senior Taylor Forehand got the start and pitched 5.1 solid innings as she gave up three runs on four hits while striking out a pair of batters. Isabelle Mullen picked up the win out of the bullpen as she struck out four over 2.2 innings and gave up just one run and two hits.
Both teams added early runs but the Cobras pulled ahead 4-1 with three runs in the third thanks to a pair of runs batted in by Hannah Goodman and one from Madison King. Goodman would come up big once again as she drove in two more in the bottom of the fifth to extend the Coker lead to three. Anderson fought back, though, as two runs crossed the plate in the sixth to make it just a one run ballgame before Gluhosky and King officially closed the book on the Trojans with a run batted in each.
Christine Carver got the nod as she tossed 2.1 innings, giving up just one run on two hits. Mullen was credited with her second win of the day out of the bullpen after tossing 2.2 innings in relief. The freshman struck out a pair of batters while allowing two runs on three hits. Jordyn Goodman came out of the bullpen and gave up one unearned run in her lone inning of work and Forehand closed out the win, hurling one perfect inning.
The Cobras will now wait and see how the remaining games throughout the conference play out to decide their fate for the SAC Softball Championship in Salisbury, North Carolina.
McDonald's Player of the Game - Isabelle Mullen