MOUNT VERNON, Ga. - The Brewton-Parker Christian University (BPCU) Barons softball team traveled to Cochran, Ga., to take on the Knights of Middle Georgia State University in a doubleheader on March 24, 2026. The Barons dropped game one 3-2, falling short in a seventh-inning comeback before bouncing back and dominating the Knights in game two, taking it 10-4 to split.
Game one turned on one swing in the fifth inning. After four scoreless innings, a three-run homer to right-center gave Middle Georgia a 3-0 lead. All three runs were unearned. Brons pitcher Samantha Mathews worked six innings, allowed four hits and three runs, none earned, and threw 103 pitches in the loss and controlled the game, throwing four scoreless innings before the Knights capitalized on errors.
Brewton-Parker tried to mount a seventh-inning comeback started by Alyssa Usrey, who finished with two hits, including a double, and scored on Aniston Powell's sacrifice fly to get the Barons on the board. Later in the inning, Makayla Croft came through as a pinch hitter with an RBI single to left-center that scored Jenny Braddy and trimmed the margin to 3-2. The Knights' pitching staff then shut down the Barons to end the comeback bid and take game one.
The nightcap looked different almost immediately. Brewton-Parker scored in each of the first four innings and built control with a steady offensive push. The Barons put up three runs in the first, added one in the second, and then broke the game open further in the third when Tori Wright delivered a three-RBI single during another three-run inning. Brewton-Parker added two more runs in the fourth and another in the sixth to finish with 10 runs on nine hits.
Wright drove in three runs, scored twice, and walked two times in game two, while Aniston Powell added two hits, two runs, and an RBI. Morgan Willingham also supplied an RBI single in the first-inning surge. Brewton-Parker showed patience throughout the second game, drawing eight walks and forcing Middle Georgia into five errors while leaving 11 runners on base.
Natalie O'Neal went the distance in the win, covering all seven innings while allowing six hits and four earned runs with four strikeouts across 126 pitches. Middle Georgia scored twice in the first and twice in the third, but O'Neal kept the Knights off the board over the final four innings to secure the split.
The Barons will begin preparing to host a conference showdown on March 28, 2026, when the Fillies of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College visit Mount Vernon.
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