By Holly Weber, TTU Sports Information Coordinator
TROY, Ala.—Day one at the Troy Classic was a rocky one for the Tennessee Tech Softball team (3-4, 0-0 OVC). The Golden Eagles lost both games first falling to Ole Miss 8-5, and then losing to host Troy 11-3 in five innings.
It was a close game against Ole Miss, the Rebels taking the 8-5 victory. Mississippi notched their first run in the fourth inning when the Rebel's Preciado reached on a fielding error by Tech's third baseman to drive McKinney in on the error.
Ole Miss rang in three more in the bottom of the fifth when the Rebel's Lampton singled up the middle to drive in two runs. Later in the inning a sacrifice bunt from Mississippi's Syrett drove in another runner with only one down.
Tech notched their first run in the sixth inning when three on with no down brought Callen Griffin to the plate. Griffin hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Amity Brown from third leaving runners on first and second with one down. LaSala knocked in Tech's second run with a double to left driving in Richards making the score 4-2 after the top of the sixth.
Ole Miss extended their lead in the bottom of the sixth when they added four more runs off of two hits to extend their lead to 8-2. Tech added another in the third when bases loaded with one down brought Kelly Kennedy to the plate. An illegal pitch by Ole Miss allowed Tech to advance the runners and score one more for the Golden Eagles. Kennedy then singled to left scoring another and leaving two on with one down when Griffin came up to bat. Griffin batted in Tech's last run when she grounded out to the short stop.5
Danielle Liberatore (1-2) suffered the loss going for 4.2 innings and allowing four runs off of five hits. Liberatore struck out seven and walked six in the contest.
Against Troy, Tech batted in one run in the first inning when Richards singled to left to drive in Neeb. Troy came out strong in the bottom of the first batting in six runs off of three hits.
The Golden Eagles only two other runs came in the second and fourth innings. In the second, Neeb singles to left field to drive in Taylor, and in the fourth, Fry hit a homerun to notch Tech's final run of the game.
Troy added two runs in the second inning, one in the fourth and two in the fifth to close out a five-inning 11-3 victory over the Golden Eagles.
Hannah Weaver (1-1) suffered the loss going for .2 innings and allowing six runs on three hits.
The Golden Eagles will return to action Sunday when they close out the Troy Classic with a game against McNeese State at 9:30 a.m. followed by a 2:30 p.m. contest against host Troy.
