Georgia Southern had a successful weekend, dominating two out of three games and taking their second Sun Belt series win against the University of South Alabama.

Game 1; W (5-1)

The Eagles were able to kick off the series with a 5-1 win starting on Saturday, March 17.

Freshman pitcher Rylee Waldrep had a beyond impressive game, having a no-hitter all the way into the seventh inning. Waldrep only gave up one walk and two hits by the end of the game, leading the Eagles to victory and improving her own record of 8-2 on the year.

The Eagles started slow, having no score up until the third inning, where GS very quickly turned things around.

Sophomore Shelby Wilson was able to fire up the Eagles with a three-run home run to left field, allowing junior Logan Harrell to come in with a lucky solo hit off the right field foul pole directly following Wilson.

Sophomore Mekhia Freeman was also able to get Harrell to home plate a second time off her RBI double in the fifth inning.

While pitching from the Eagles was strong, the Jaguars struggled. Devin Brown from USA threw nine hits, five runs, and two walks in six innings, but she also gave out an impressive six strike outs.

Game 2; W (5-1)

Following their win on Saturday, the Eagles were able to pull a second 5-1 win in the same day over South Alabama.

Senior Kierra Camp was able to match Waldrep’s performance from earlier in the day- only throwing four hits and one run in the seventh inning and gaining her 10th win of the season.

The Eagles started off strong, pulling a 3-0 lead in the second inning thanks to junior Macy Coleman’s two run double and senior Alesha Mann’s RBI single.

From there the Eagle’s scoring went dormant until the sixth inning where freshman Sydney Fisher’s pinch-hit RBI double and senior Indian Davis’s fly were able to add to the score and increase their lead to 5-0.

USA finally got their score on the board with a solo shot from Kamdyn Kvistad in the top of the seventh inning.

Much like game one of the series, the Jaguars struggled with pitching. Alexis Reid pitched for USA and gave up six hits, five runs, walked three, and only struck out four batters.

{{tncms-inline account=”Georgia Southern Softball” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">FINAL FROM STATESBOROEagles complete the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SunBeltSB?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SunBeltSB</a> sweep with a 5-1 win over South Alabama in game two. Final game of the series tomorrow at Noon! <a href="https://t.co/wJwQHnBfgY">pic.twitter.com/wJwQHnBfgY</a></p>— Georgia Southern Softball (@GSAthletics_SB) <a href="https://twitter.com/GSAthletics_SB/status/975097190153629697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/GSAthletics_SB/status/975097190153629697″ type=”twitter”}}

Game 3; L (0-8)

The Eagles looked to take game three over the Jaguars, but USA showed up to play Sunday, taking the game 0-8 over the Eagles.

Scoring from both teams were lacking in the first two innings, seeing only one run from the Jaguars off an unearned run. From there though the Jaguars picked things up a notch, having a four-run third inning.

USA was able to increase their lead over the Eagles to 5-0 in the third with a two-run double, an RBI single, and an RBI double. The Jaguars were able to squeeze in three more runs in the seventh inning, sealing their 0-8 win over GS.

Southern struggled as they were unable to get a single hit until the fourth inning off of returning pitcher Devin Brown. Freeman broke the dry spell with a single to lead off the fourth, and following the Eagles were only able to get two more hits for the rest of the game.

Devin Brown definitely avenged herself from her performance the day before with seven strikeouts and a shutout win, while only giving up three hits. Waldrep was not on her game as she was the day before, giving up six hits and five runs, while only striking out one batter.

What’s Next?

Although they lost their final game, the Eagles still took the series and improved their overall record to 19-8 and their national rank to 48 in the NCAA RPI this week.

The Eagles will travel to take on number seven University of Georgia for a single game in Athens, GA on Wednesday, March 21 at 6 p.m. and host ULM for a three game series this weekend in Eagle Field.

Kaitlin Sells, The George-Anne Sports Reporter, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu