Lady Barons Sweep Season Opener Against Columbia

Courtesy of BPC

Softball season has officially returned to Mount Vernon as the Lady Barons of the Brewton- Parker College's Softball program took to the diamond on Saturday afternoon in a matchup against Columbia College (S.C.). Brewton-Parker (2-0) opened the 2024 campaign with a home doubleheader sweep over the Koalas (0-2) in a 7-2 victory in game one followed by a 6-0 shutout in game two.

Game 1

After keeping the Koalas to a pair of hits and a scoreless top of the first, the Lady Barons utilized a leadoff single from Alexis Bradshaw, a sacrifice bunt from Destiny Lucas, and an RBI base hit from Abbey Flowers to tale a 1-0 advantage early.

Columbia leveled the game in the top of the second inning, scoring a run on a pair of hits. After a scoreless bottom second and top half of the third, BPC moved back into control of the scoreline with a double from Bradshaw followed by an RBI groundout from Tori Wright for the 2-1 edge.

After a scoreless fourth inning, Brewton-Parker added three runs to the tally in the fifth inning on a total of five hits while leaving a pair of runners stranded. Bradshaw connected for a single and stole a base before moving to third on a groundout and scoring off an RBI single from Wright.

BPC moved to a 5-1 advantage with a tworun shot over the leftfield wall off the bat of Flowers for the first homer of the season. The Lady Barons were producing hits with Chloe Strickland and Cailyn Snellgrove connecting for singles prior to closing out the fifth.

In the sixth, Brewton- Parker notched three hits and scored a pair to move to a 7-1 advantage. The Lady Barons took a six-run lead with an RBI single from Lucas to score Ashley Wilson and an RBI double from Flowers to score Lucas.

Columbia took advantage of an error and an RBI single in the top of the seventh to score the second run of the game. However, BPC managed to hold on to the advantage and closed out the first game with a 7-2 edge.

Brewton-Parker led 13-6 in hits and 7-2 in RBIs. Both Bradshaw and Flowers notched three hits each while Flowers produced four RBIs. Flowers connected for her 12th-career homer and 17th-career double. Natalie O’Neal picked up the win for BPC and tossed for all seven innings, striking out seven batters and walking five.

Game 2

Brewton-Parker struck first in the opening inning, piecing together a single from Lucas and a double from Flowers to score before following up in the third with an RBI single from Lucas to take a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Lady Barons took advantage of an error, a wild pitch, and hits from BryAnn Pound and Flowers to score three runs. BPC moved to a 5-0 advantage in the fifth before adding one final run in the sixth, taking care of another error from the Koalas to move to a 6-0 lead. Brewton-Parker finished the contest with a 10-4 hitting advantage and was gifted a pair of errors while giving one away also.

Lucas led with three hits and was followed by a pair each from Bradshaw and Flowers. Flowers moved to 18 career doubles and finished the doubleheader with six RBIs for a career total of 62. Kira Altman earned the win and pitched all seven innings for BPC, striking out six batters and walking a pair while giving up just four hits.

BPC was at Columbia International on Tuesday after presstime.