ALBANY, Ga. – The Lady Ram offense picked up where the Sunday night pitching left off. Albany State offense use three big scoring trips to the plate in the opener and followed with a key 5-run outburst in the late game to finish a series sweep of Savannah State, 12-1 in five innings and 6-5, on Monday afternoon.
ASU (15-5/6-0 SIAC East) wasted no time in taking control of game one. Keyatta Ayers lofted a sac fly before another two home runners touched home plate off Savannah State errors for a 3-0 lead. Kaliyah Smith and Madison Hurt both drove in two runs with a single and a double as part of a 5-run third and Ayers added a RBI double in a 3-run fourth at bat.
Trailing 4-1 going to the bottom of the fifth of Game 2, Emaria Banks and Hurt lined run-scoring singles, but the game-deciding scores came off three Lady Tiger errors, including the final one to bring Hurt home, who had stolen both second and third base for a 6-4 lead. Savannah State pushed home a single run in the sixth to cut it to a one-run game, but it stranded a pair on base in the seventh to end the day.
Leading the 23 Lady Ram hits, Hurt set the table from her lead-off spot to a tune of 6 for 8 with four runs, a double, four RBI, and five stolen bases. Olivia Mason registered a 3 for 3 second game with a RBI double and a run. Ayers finished 3 for 6 with a double, two singles, three runs, two RBI, three stolen bases and a sac fly. Romona McLeod was 2 for 3 in the openr with a RBI sac fly. Tiana McFarland lined home a run with a single in her lone at bat and De'Laynie Hollis singled in each contest. Raven Dunham rounded out the last multi-hit ASU player with a single in each game with three runs and a stolen base.
In the circle, McLeod earned the first win of the day where she went the distance of five innings to allow six hits, one earned run and struck out three. Kaliyah Smith gave up 11 hits, but only one earned run in the second contest over seven innings and fanned four.
ASU will have three days off until it will be BlackOut Day when Edward Waters comes to town for the next SIAC series starting on Friday afternoon (Mar. 8) in a 1 and 3 p.m. doubleheader.
