GAME ONE BOX SCORE

GAME TWO BOX SCORE

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Prairie View A&M softball team won its first conference series over Southern for the first time in three seasons on Saturday afternoon.  The Lady Panthers dropped the opener 9-1 but bounced back in the rubber match to claim an 8-6 victory.

In game one, the Lady Panthers scored first but fell behind early as Southern recorded a 9-1 victory in five innings of action.

Senior Jasmine Littles hit a one-out double in the first and moved to third on Leanna Flores' single to center.  Littles eventually made her way to home for the game's first run as a wild pitch gave the Lady Panthers a 1-0 advantage.  However, the lead would be brief as starting pitcher Nicole Gallardo issued consecutive walks to open up the bottom of the first.  Southern took advantage as they hit back-to-back RBI singles to lead 2-1 and never relinquished the lead after claiming a 3-1 first inning advantage.  The Lady Panthers struggled all game long at the plate as they managed only one additional hit from that point while Southern finished with 11 hits.

Gallardo fell to 1-3 on the season while Littles, Flores and Brittanie Gardner finished with a hit each.

After a subpar performance in the opener, the Lady Panthers paid attention to head coach Vernon Bland's pregame speech as Shontel Lopez finished 4-for-5 with four RBIs as PV belted out 15 hits en route to an 8-6 series clinching win.

Once again, PV struck first in the opening inning as Lopez doubled home Littles for an early 1-0 lead.  Southern moved ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the first but PV responded with a three-run second inning to jump on top 4-2.  In a match that began to resemble a heavyweight fight offensively, the Lady Jaguars crossed home three runs on four hits in the bottom of the fourth for a 5-4 lead.

Down a run entering the sixth, PV refused to surrender as Littles and Flores both recorded one-out singles to put pressure on the SU defense.  Lopez tied the game with an RBI double down the left field line followed by an RBI single from Kelly Scruggs which moved PV back on top 6-5.  The lead increased to 7-5 shortly thereafter on Alisa Navarro's RBI single to left.

After a scoreless bottom of the sixth, PV added a much-needed insurance run in the seventh as Lopez drove in Pace for an 8-5 margin. Southern refused to go away though in the bottom of the seventh as Harley Roller hit a leadoff home run to cut its deficit to 8-6.  However, starting pitching Cally Falls regrouped and retired the next three batters to close out the series.

Lopez finished 4-for-5 with four RBIs followed by Scruggs' 3-for-4 performance with two RBIs.  Olivia Pace, Flores and Navarro also recorded two hits each.

PV returns to action on Monday as they'll host Langston at 2 p.m. in Prairie View.