MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Morgan Bell’s second grand slam of the season set the tone Wednesday night for the No. 21 Mississippi State softball team in a 7-1 victory against Memphis at the Tiger Softball Complex.
Bell’s third grand slam of her career ties her with Jessica Cooley for the program record. She had her second five-RBI game of the season to help MSU (23-3) win its 11th game in a row.
Four Bulldogs had two hits to back the pitching of Cassady Knudsen (8-1), who went four innings and allowed one run and three hits. She struck out seven.
Memphis plated the first run on a solo home run by Baylee Smith in the bottom of the first. Smith’s home run was just the second allowed by the Bulldog pitching staff this season.
The Bulldogs answered in the top of the second with a RBI double to center by Bell. After a single up the middle by junior Kat Moore to put Bulldogs on the corner with no outs, senior Cayln Adams drove in the go-ahead run on a fielder’s choice.
MSU broke open the game in the top of the fifth. Junior Emily Heimberger singled and Mia Davidson doubled. A dropped pop up on Reggie Harrison’s at-bat loaded the bases. A second error brought in a run before Bell slugged a grand slam to left-center field to make it 7-1.
Knudsen found her grove after giving up a leadoff single in the bottom of the third, retiring the next six batters she faced. Memphis didn’t get another baserunner until the bottom of the fifth, as senior Holly Ward gave up a two-out bloop single to short in her first inning of relief.
Ward closed the game with three groundouts in the top of the seventh to earn her team-leading third save. She allowed two hits and one walk. She struck out four.
MSU will open Southeastern Conference play this weekend against Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Game 1 of the three-game weekend series will be at 6:30 p.m. Friday. The final two games of the series — at 4 p.m. Saturday and at noon Sunday — will air on the SEC Network.
n No. 23 Ole Miss 8, Southeastern Louisiana 0: At Hammond, Louisiana, Four Rebels had multiple hits, while six had an RBI Wednesday to help Ole Miss end its five-game losing streak Wednesday at North Oak Park.
Scoring in four of the six frames, Ole Miss (14-7) had 11 hits.
Kaitlin Lee ended a three-game slide with a dominating performance. Save a soft-liner for a single in the fifth, Lee faced the minimum in her five innings. Brittany Finney allowed one hit in the sixth.
Elantra Cox scored three runs to tie her career-high. It is the seventh time in the senior’s career she has scored three times in a game.
Kylan Becker was 3-for-3 to match her career high for hits in a game. Celeste Wood also had three hits.
n No. 12 Alabama 3, Georgia Tech 1: At Atlanta, Reagan Dykes
and Bailey Hemphill had home runs to back the pitching effort of Madison Preston on Wednesday in a victory against Georgia Tech.
Alabama (18-5) took the lead over Georgia Tech (14-8) in the top of the second inning with a monster two-run home run by Dykes, her second long ball in her last four appearances.
The Yellow Jackets cut the lead in half in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI single, but Hemphill added some insurance with a solo home run in the top of the seventh.
Preston (6-1) earned the win, throwing 6 1/3 innings. Alexis Osorio struck out the final two batters for her fourth save.
Alabama will face No. 14 Auburn at 6 p.m. Friday in the first game of a three-game SEC weekend series. Saturday’s game will air live at 7 p.m. on ESPNU. Sunday’s series finale will air at 5 p.m. on the SEC Network.
n Southern Mississippi will play host to Troy: At Hattiesburg, the Southern Mississippi softball team will wrap up its homestand at 3 p.m. today with a doubleheader against Troy.
This past weekend, Southern Miss (10-16) fell to Western Kentucky in a doubleheader before a walk-off home run in the third game avoided the sweep.
Troy Trojans (14-8) lost in a three-game series to Georgia Southern last weekend.
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