By Berry Aldridge, Sports Editor

The Armstrong State women’s softball team steamrolled Palm Beach Atlantic 11-3 at the CSU Softball Classic in Columbus, Ga. The win pushes the Pirates’ record to 10-6 on the season.

Both teams were quiet offensively for the first inning but in the top of the second Pirate senior Alexis Mercer doubled in the left-centerfield gap to score juniors Peyton Roth and Sierra Newman, and senior Rachel Reynolds. Unfortunately, the Cougars responded with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning.

“We really grew as a team and came through, especially our younger girls,” Mercer said, “If someone made a mistake or was having an off game, the next person was there to pick up the slack to make things happen.”

Scoring subsided again until the fifth inning when Roth doubled to score sophomore Savannah Gladue and freshman Michaela Hatcher. Two batters later junior Ashley Sterritt singled in Roth and Newman. This time, junior Jane Trzaska shut down the Cougars in the home half of the inning.

Armstrong wasn’t done scoring yet though. In the top of the seventh inning Mercer picked up her fourth RBI of the day and Trzaska helped her own cause by launching a 3-run homer over the centerfield wall to increase the lead to 11-3.

Trzaska picked up the win on the mound for the Pirates and finished the day with four strikeouts, four walks, and three earned runs in route to her sixth win of the season.

“Overall a lot of things came together today. Both our defense and hitting were on and we are hoping to keep this feelings going and to keep improving,” Trzaska said.

Freshman Autumn Parrish, Junior Michele Breen, Roth, Mercer, and Sterritt all had multiple hits on the day and Roth scored three runs.