Softball Cruises to Opening Day Sweep

LAKELAND, Fla.- Southeastern softball looked like an NAIA top five team today as they took two run-rule victories, 10-2 and 9-0, over Bryan College to open the 2023 season.
 
In game one, Claire Sekinger earned her first win of the season after going four of five innings and allowing just two earned runs on six hits.
 
The first run of the new season came off the bat of Chapel Cunningham after a single up the middle that scored Haleigh Harrell in the second inning. Freshman Lauren Sekinger followed with her first collegiate hit and RBI with yet another single up the middle to score Cunningham.
 
Sekinger got into trouble in the third inning after three walks allowed a single into right field to cut the deficit in half as the Lions would go on to tie the contest at two with a bases-loaded walk.
 
The Fire offense would put up four more runs in the third as Harrell grabbed her first RBI of the day with a single that scored Jamie Mead. A perfectly executed squeeze bunt by Cunningham scored the fourth run of the contest while Leah Gonzalez brought home two more with a single.
 
In the fourth, the Fire put up four more beginning with Erica Stahl driving an RBI double into center field. Freshman Mallory Watts would then burst onto the scene, sending her first collegiate hit over the left field fence for a three-RBI home run, securing the Fire's eventual 10-2 victory.
 
Freshman Danielle Wasserstrom came on to close things out on the mound in the fifth, striking out two of the five batters faced.
 
Game two saw Autumn Hunter and Kenzie Forrester combine for just one hit through five innings with Hunter earning the win after going four innings and allowing the lone hit. Forrester would come on in relief in the fifth as the Fire would go three-up-three down to claim the 9-0 game two win.
 
It took just two batters for the Fire to get on the board in game two with Riley Sanders reaching on an error, stealing second, and coming around to score on an RBI double by Mead. Cunningham grabbed another RBI in the form of a sacrifice bunt that scored Mead and was followed by freshman Nicole Wasserstrom's first collegiate hit and RBI that gave the Fire a 3-0 lead after one.
 
In the third, Gonzalez added to her RBI total with a two-run double off the centerfield wall.
 
Four more runs came in the fourth with another RBI by Mead and Cunningham and Stahl's second double of the day, securing the Fire's 9-0 victory.
 
Harrell concluded the day a perfect 5-5 with six runs scored while Cunningham went 3-4 with two runs and four RBI's. Gonzalez also had a strong showing at the plate with four RBI's and a 3-4 effort.
 
The No. 4 ranked Fire will be back in action on Friday in a doubleheader against Truett-McConnell at 1 and 3 p.m.