Lindsey Dunn
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Over the weekend, the Bryan softball team bounced back from their season-opening losses at Bethel University (Tenn.) in dramatic fashion with a pair dominating victories at NCCAA foe Piedmont International University (N.C.) in securing their first two wins of the season. The Lions overwhelmed the Bruins 16-2 in runs scored, defeating the home team 8-2 in game one before recording an 8-0 shutout in the nightcap. Bryan’s performances were nearly perfect with the team combining for 31 hits through both games, as well as, not striking out a single at-bat and never committing an error. The Lions produced 12 extra-base hits, highlighted by Brooke Belflower and Lindsey Dunn each crushing one homeun apiece. Bryan now stands at an even 2-2 overall while Piedmont remains winless at 0-4.
In the second inning of the first game was the Bruins’ only look at a lead the entire day. In the top of the frame, the Lions brought in the first run when Belflower delivered a leadoff single, advanced to second on Hannah O’Shields’ single, and then scored when Jarica Ensley connected for an RBI double. Piedmont countered in the bottom of the inning, using four hits to take control 2-1. The turning point was in the fourth when Belflower came home on an Ensley double, Ensley scored on an Ariel Holt double, and Holt capped the three-run rally by scoring on Kallie Hawkins’ double to provide the Lions with a 4-2 advantage. From then on, Bryan continued to put more space between them and Piedmont. O’Shields drove in Belflower in the fifth with an RBI single, both Addy Keylon and Tesla Huling tacked on a pair of runs in the sixth when Heidi Smith blasted a two-run double, and Belflower sealed the commanding win with a leadoff shot over the fence in the seventh, marking the first homerun of her career for the freshman from Tunnel Hill, Georgia.
The Lions outhit the Bruins 17-10, led by Belflower’s 4-for-4 display with a team-high four runs scored, one RBI, one double, and one homerun. O’Shields trailed with three hits, one RBI, and one double. Both Keylon and Ensley matched each other with two hits apiece, while Keylon snagged the team’s two stolen bases. Ensley collected two doubles, two runs batted in, and one run scored. Smith, Holt, and Hawkins made the most of their lone connections with each hitting a double. Brianna Nagelhout, Kailey Brimm, and Tesla Huling ended with one hit, respectively.
Stephanie Blevins dealt her first win of the season, tossing the first three frames and allowing just five hits and a pair of earned runs with two walks. Dunn closed with a scoreless final four innings, surrendering five hits, walking one, and retiring three via strikeout.
The momentum followed the Lions into the second and final face-off with the Bruins, as Bryan pieced together three big innings, beginning in the top of the fourth. The initial pair of runs were scored by Ensley and O’Shields when Maryah Sober broke free for a two-run double to launch the Lions ahead 2-0 in the fourth. Bryan chipped in three runs during the next frame, starting with a Nagelhout triple that brought around Smith and Keylon. The Lions seized a comfortable 5-0 advantage thanks to a Belflower sac-fly that scored Nagelhout. Bryan ended all hope of Piedmont in the seventh with Huling scoring on an O’Shields sac-fly sent to left and Dunn grabbing hold of a pitch and directing it deep for a two-run bomb, as the Lions came away with the 8-0 blanking of the Bruins.
As a team, the Lions topped the Bruins in the hits’ column a monstrous 14-4, as Keylon yielded a team-best three hits and two stolen bags. Nagelhout, O’Shields, and Shannon White came next with two hits apiece. Smith, Ensley, Dunn, Sober, and Leslie Beecham made the hits’ list with one each. In the RBI column, it was Nagelhout, Dunn, and Sober who led the squad with two runs batted in, respectively. Dunn homered in her lone appearance at the plate, Ensley doubled, and registering the team’s only other extra-base hits was Nagelhout with a double and triple.
Madison Owens ruled the game from the circle en route to her first win of the year, as the senior hurler from Dandridge, Tennessee worked through the opening six innings and held Piedmont to a mere three hits and no runs with three walks and four K’s. Ensley closed the outing in the final frame with a clean slate and one strikeout.
Bryan’s next challenge awaits them this weekend in Lawrenceville, Georgia at 5th-ranked Georgia Gwinnett College’s tournament on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21-22. The Lions open up the event at noon on Friday against (RV) College of Coastal Georgia and end the day taking on Georgia Gwinnett at 2 p.m. Saturday will include matchups with Coastal Georgia at 1pm and Georgia Gwinnett at 3 p.m.