Macon,GA- The Wesleyan Wolves softball team traveled to Demorset, GA to square up with the defending conference champion Piedmont Lions on a rainy sunday morning ultimately dropping the pair of contests by finals of 2-0 and 4-3 with the nightcap needing an 8th inning to break the 3-3 tie. Tihana Zupanic dazzled in the circle once again, tossing all 13 innings for the Wolves and striking out 10 lions along the way. Presly Edwards led the Wolves offense with 2 hits including a 2 RBI double to get Wolves on the board in game 2. 

Game 1

After the rain stopped and the sun came out from behind the clouds the Wolves and Lions took the field to start what would be a great day of softball 30 minutes after the scheduled start time. Tihana Zupanic toed the rubber and started her day by stranding a Lion runner at third with her 1st of 10 strikeouts. As zeros flashed across the scoreboard inning after inning with neither team able to get anything going offensively, Emma McBryer from Piedmont and Zupanic from Wesleyan battled it out in a good old fashioned pitcher's duel. As the game went to the 5th Emilee Stevenson was the only wolf to reach base, twice via walk, and the Lions matched the base runner total with a 1 out single in the first and a walk, the only in the game for Zupanic, in the 2nd. In the top of the 5th a pair of walks put Kaitlyn McCord and Sam Bowen on base for the Wolves with 1 out, but McBryer worked out of the jam to keep the game scoreless going to the bottom of the inning. A pair of extra base hits in the bottom of the 5th got the Lions on the board with 2 runs, which proved to be one more than the Lions needed as McBryer worked around the lead off single in the top of the 6th by Taylor Frye to retire the next 6 Wesleyan batters in order finishing the game at 2-0. 

Game 2

Game 2 started similarly to game 1 with Zupanic working out of a runner on third 2 out jam with a pop up on the infield to put a zero up on the board in the first inning. Zupanic managed to strand another runner at third in the second with a superb defensive play on a bunt back to the circle and another timely strikeout to end the scoring threat. The Lions managed to plate a run in the 4th on a 2 out double to left field who came around to score on a single through the left side to take a 1-0 lead going to the fifth. With 1 out in the top of the fifth inning Katelyn McCord reached via a hit by pitch, before Sam Bowen laced a single into left field to put runners on the corners with 2 away. Presly Edwards then came through with a 2 out double to the wall in left center scoring both McCord and Bowen to give the Wolves a 2-1 lead with 2 innings left to play. The Lions answered back with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth to retake a 3-2 lead. With the Wolves still trailing 3-2 in the top of the 7th Arielle Wallace reached base with a lead off single to put the tying run on for the heart of the Wolves line up. Kaitlyn McCord drew a 7 pitch walk to reach as the go ahead run for Wesleyan. Sabrina Bowen put down a beautiful bunt that was thrown away by the Piedmont defense trying to get her at first allowing Wallace to score from second and tie the game with a perfect slide at home plate to avoid the tag. With the score now even at 3-3 the Wolves had runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, but were unable to push across another run. Zupanic and the defense were able to retire the side in order in the bottom of the 7th to send the game to extras. Wesleyan was unable to get anything going in the top of the 8th and the Lions took advantage of a lead off double in the bottom of the inning to plate the go ahead run and take the win 4-3. 

The Wolves will be back at home playing Agnes Scott on Tuesday this week in a non CCS match up. Games will start at 3 and 5pm and be available to stream on our youtube channel at the link below.