On the road to Decatur: Non conference win uproots Southern to SWAC Championships

Southern at the beginning of the season started the season with five straight losses in non-conference play and overall against non-conference teams, Southern attributed approximately 25 percent of wins against valuable odds.
At the stretch of the season, teams are gaining leverage to obtain championships and no other team has gained such leverage than the women’s softball team. Week in and week out, they have gauged the talent of other teams and surpassed those measures and left the past in the past.
On April 21, those odds widened when Southern took down Southeastern 5-4 on the Lady Jaguar Field.
Head Coach John Garris expressed the season overall when he said, “It’s not what we did then but it what we do at the end that matters.”
Southern (11-5, 15-12) has had wider odds against their conference foes and trails at second in the Western Division.
Unfortunately their two game win streak came to an abrupt end when the random weather in Southeastern Louisiana rained out the double-dutch games against eastern division threat, Jackson State on Thursday, April 23.
Jackson State (12-4, 22-24) leads the SWAC in the Eastern Division and goes on to await the trial that is called the Southeastern Athletic Conference Championship.
On Tuesday, Southern allowed a one run lead by Southeastern in their first inning when Katie Lacour scored by an RBI after Amber Sather cracked a baseline hit to left hit.
Southern realigned their forces in their first inning and achieved three runs to add an explosive inning. Junior in-fielder, Alicias Barajas started the inning by busting a triple and scored an RBI after sophomore out-fielder, Bailey Rankin, nailed a single. Rankin advanced to third from a whiffed ball past the plate to attribute for an out and when freshman in-fielder, Jamani Greer, sent a single it allowed Rankin to score another RBI. Greer then scored on an error by second baseman then decided to take advantage of the bases.
It wouldn’t be an exciting game if the opposition didn’t bite back and that’s what the Lions did in their second inning. Creeping on third and near home was Lion’s Vanessa Eng and after an error by the right fielder, her and Sloan Jenkins scored runs to tie up the game.
Once again Southern allowed the Lions to take the lead in their fifth inning when Sather sent a single over to their scoring side and her teammate Peyton Stokes-Sutton pinch ran for her. After a double by Megan Moore, Stokes-Sutton scored by an RBI and her legs gave her the lead. This made the score 3-4.
Southern was at wit’s end after an empty sixth inning when they rallied in the last inning and decided this was the last straw and their last chance at a victory before the SWAC Championships.
At the seventh inning, Southern graced the Lady Jaguar Field when SWAC Softball Player of the Week, freshman heavy-hitter Kiara Suttles, scored off of an RBI by sophomore in-fielder Jade Luke spiked a single down the middle. This tied the score but didn’t finish the offset of the game. What carried over the game was the ball did not grace the opposition’s glove which was when outfielder, Ambrelle Burton joined the ranks of runs when she scored the last point of 5-4 to win the game thus increasing the odds for Southern.
Although Southeastern brought more hits to the table with 11 to the Jaguar’s nine. This came to Southern gauging the defense measures and coming to the clutch when needed.
Southern now will travel to Decatur, Alabama and at the peak of it all, visit the SWAC Championship on May 6.
“This is what we worked hard for all season and we will keep working hard at SWAC and when we leave from it,” finished Garris.