Vikings sweep doubleheader vs. ranked opponent
The No. 5-ranked Berry Vikings defeated No. 13 Birmingham-southern 4-0 and 5-1 in a highly anticipated Southern Athletic Association doubleheader Friday afternoon at Kay Williams Field.
Strong pitching from Blair Hall and Hannah Gore as well as defense separated the Vikings, pushing them to improve to 14-0 in conference play.
Game 1: Berry 4, Birmingham Southern 0
The Vikings only had to score four runs to edge the Panthers in the opener as the defense did most of the heavy lifting. Hall threw a one-hitter in a complete game and struck out six.
Berry (27-4, 14-0 SAA) scored three in the first inning when Katie White singled to first base, sending Morgan Frye to home plate. Lauren Cothern then singled to right field which scored White. Paige Bennett was able to reach on a throwing error, which gave Anna Jackson the go ahead to score another.
The fourth and final run came in the third inning when Cothern grounded out to first to score Elly Bennett.
Game 2: Berry 5, Birmingham-southern 1
Three different Vikings homered in Game 2, which ultimately handed the Panthers the loss.
It took until the third inning for the Vikings to get on the board, with a Shelby Daniel double to right field that scored Aleeya Thornton. White hit a solo homer to left field one inning the later, putting the crowd on their feet as soon as the ball left the bat.
The Panthers tacked on their first run of the day during the fifth inning, which would also be their last.
Frye hit a solo homer to left center, giving her team a little more breathing room in the bottom of the sixth inning and tying the school record for career home runs with 26. But Paige Bennett wanted more as she hit a two-run homer to left field, scoring White as well.
Gore also threw a complete game, allowing only one run, and struck out four.
The series finale between the two teams on Saturday was canceled due to inclement weather. It is unknown if it will be rescheduled or not at this time.
In other Berry sports news recently:
BASEBALL
Berry 16, Millsaps 4
Berry scored in all but one inning that it batted, earning a 16-4 run-rule victory over Millsaps to close a Southern Athletic Association baseball series Friday afternoon at William R. Bowdoin Field.
The Vikings (13-18, 7-8) won an SAA series for the second time this season, moving into fifth in the league standings with two more three-game sets to go before the SAA Championships. After dropping game one of the series on a run in the ninth, the Vikings outscored the Majors 28-6 over the next 14 innings to take the series.
Berry had help in the rubber match from the Majors’ defense as the guests committed six errors. After taking a 2-0 lead in the first on a run-scoring fielder’s choice off the bat of Wesley Maxey and an Rbi-knock from John D’amelio, two errors led to five unearned runs for the Vikings in the second.
The first error helped Berry to load the bases for a sacrifice fly off the bat of Nick Brunswick to tie the game at 3-3. Andrew Pendleton would come through with another sac fly two batters later to give Berry the lead for good, 4-3.
A fielding error loaded the bases for the Vikings, with D’amelio getting his second RBI of the game one batter later to push the advantage up to two. The scoring was capped in the inning on a two-run single through the left side from Levi Cloud to make it 7-3.
Millsaps (16-17, 7-8) scored its final run of the game in the third to trim the lead to three. Berry matched the run in the bottom half when Riley Uhls put the ball in play and reached on an error to score John Poist. Uhls would get credit for an RBI in his next at bat as he singled to score Poist in the fifth.
The game would come to an early end thanks to a seven-spot in the sixth from Berry. Cloud would get his seventh RBI in two games with a double to left to plate Maxey for a 10-4 lead. Later, Lang picked up a pair of RBIS with a shot through the right side of the infield to score D’amelio and Cloud.
Pinch hitter Wesley Wade gave Berry a baker’s dozen in the run column with a single to left, then Brunswick added the 14th run of the game as he reached on an RBI fielder’s choice that was coupled with another Millsaps error. Uhls completed the scoring with a two-run single to give Berry a 12-run margin of victory.
Jackson Halla picked up the win for Berry with four runs allowed in six innings. Koby Dunn worked a scoreless seventh to finish the game off early.
With Tuesday’s scheduled game scrubbed due to Covenant needing to make up conference games during the week, the Vikings will be back in action for the final SAA regular season home series of the year next Friday against Hendrix. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.