LAGRANGE, Ga. - March 12, 2020 – Hiram Terriers softball swept their doubleheader against the LaGrange College Panthers, taking game one in extra innings, 7-6, and game two, 6-4 on Thursday at the LC Softball Complex. With the two wins, the Terriers move to 4-8, while the Panthers drop to 7-5.

GAME 1: Hiram 7, LaGrange 6 (8 innings)
After two scoreless frames, the Panthers took the lead in the bottom of the third. With one on and one out, Riley Densmore tripled to right, scoring Abbey Gardner from second to give LaGrange a 1-0 lead. Landon DeLamar then followed with an RBI double, extending the Panthers' lead to 2-0.

Hiram answered though with three runs in the top of the fourth. Mariah Sheffield and Megan Davis led off the inning with back-to-back singles before Leah Valdez smacked a two-run double to left-center, evening the score at 2-2. Valdez then stole third and scored on Lauryn Olguin's groundout, giving the Terriers a 3-2 lead.

LaGrange tied things up in the bottom of the frame on Hailey Jones' RBI single, before Hiram retook the lead in the top of the fifth. Singles by Giselle Bahena and Rebekah Lewan put runners on the corners for Sheffield, who's sacrifice bunt scored Bahena to give the Terriers a 4-3 lead. Davis then hit a sacrifice fly to right to make it a 5-3 lead.

And after Kaitlyn Hager worked around a one-out single to keep the Panthers' scoreless in the bottom of the fifth, the Terriers extended their lead in the top of the sixth. Kylie Perez led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on a LaGrange error. A batter later, Hager brought Perez home with an RBI groundout, extending the Terriers' lead to 6-3.

But the Panthers scored three runs in the bottom of the inning, tying the score at 6-6 on Gardner's two-run blast to center. And after both teams left a runner on in the seventh, the Terriers and Panthers headed to extras, tied at 6-6.

In the top of the eighth, Hiram loaded the bases and with one out, Victoria Garcia brought what would prove to be the game-winning run home on a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Valdez to give Hiram a 7-6 lead.

And in the bottom of the frame, Jeskari Rodriguez worked a 1-2-3 inning to give Hiram the 7-6, extra-inning victory.

Rodriguez (1-2) earned the win, striking out and walking one over 2.1 innings of scoreless relief. Payton Thomas (2-4) took the loss for LaGrange.

Valdez went 2-for-4 with a double, two stolen bases, two runs scored and two RBI to lead the Terriers at the plate. Three other Terriers tallied two hits, as Davis went 2-for-2 with a walk, run scored and an RBI, Bahena went 2-for-5 with a run scored and Lewan went 2-for-4 with a run scored.

GAME 2: Hiram 6, LaGrange 4
Hiram struck first in game two in the top of the first inning. After Garcia reached on an error, Bahena doubled to left-center to put runners on second and third. Lewan drew a walk to load the bases before Olguin doubled to right-center, scoring a pair to give the Terriers a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the first, Bailey Scheck worked around a leadoff walk to keep the Panthers scoreless, before Hiram added to their lead in the top of the second.

A pair of singles by Hager and Garcia and a walk drawn by Bahena loaded the bases for Olguin, who cleared them with a three-run triple, extending the Terriers' lead to 5-0. Olguin finished the game with six RBI, going 3-for-4 with a double, triple and a walk.

In the circle, Scheck left the bases loaded in the second and another runner on in the bottom of the second, before LaGrange got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth.

The Panthers loaded the bases for McKenzie Brunel, whose RBI groundout got LaGrange on the scoreboard, cutting Hiram's lead to 5-1. Taylor Long then cleared the bases with a two-run double, making it a 5-3 lead. After Todd singled to put runners on the corners, Jones singled to right-center scoring another run to make it a one-run, 5-4, ballgame.

But Rodriguez relieved Scheck and got a pair of outs to leave the bases loaded, and keep the Terriers in front by a run.

Both teams went scoreless in the fifth, before Hiram picked up an insurance run in the top of the sixth. Garcia led off with a single and advanced to second on Bahena's groundout. A batter later, Olguin knocked in her sixth run of the game, scoring Garcia from second to give the Terriers a 6-4 lead.

Rodriguez shut down the Panthers in the bottom of the frame, working around a one-out walk, and then pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh to nail down the save, giving Hiram a 6-4 victory and a sweep of the doubleheader.

Scheck (2-4) earned the win, allowing four runs on 10 hits over 3.1 innings pitched, while Rodriguez notched her first save of the year, pitching 3.2 innings of scoreless relief, striking out four. Emsley Smith (0-1) took the loss for the Panthers.

Olguin led the Terriers at the plate, while Garcia added two hits, going 2-for-4 with three runs scored.

The Terriers will be back in action on Friday, March 13 when they travel to Mount Berry, Ga. for a doubleheader against the 17th-ranked Berry College Vikings beginning at 5:00 p.m. at Kay Williams Field.