It was a good first impression Thursday for the Lady Bears as they relied on the arm of freshman Lauren Mounce and the bat of sophomore Shaylee Ingram to help lead them to a 7-2 win over Angelina College on Day 1 of the Mardi Gras Classic in Youngsville, LA.
"They were a really good team and I thought that we played really well," Southwest head coach Shea Johnson said. "I thought that there were some nervous jitters in a couple of spots but we didn't have any major errors that created any problems."
The Lady Bears (1-0) faced a bit of adversity early in the first inning an Angelina runner advanced to third. But Mounce and the Lady Bears got third out to end the inning without any damage done.
Offensively, Southwest got things going in the second. With two outs and two runners on, freshman Gabby Carr came up big with a double to right scoring Ingram and MaryClaire Johnson, putting the Lady Bears ahead 2-0.
Angelina cut the Southwest lead in half in the third but the Lady Bears responded with another score in the top half of the fourth on an RBI single from Ingram, scoring Maggie Wilks.
Another extra base hit from a freshman resulted in additional runs for the Lady Bears as Erin Acey joined the fray in the fifth with an RBI double of her own bringing Anlyssa Richardson home and increasing the Southwest lead to 4-1.
Ingram followed suit once again with a double to center allowing Brooke Tillman to touch home. Ingram scored on the same play taking advantage of two Angelina errors pushing the Lady Bear lead to 6-1 in the sixth.
Sotuhwest added one more run in the seventh on a bases-loaded walk by Morgan Gras. Angelina scored its final run in the bottom half of the inning before Southwest retired the next two batters, one of which on a strikeout by Mounce, to seal the win.
Mounce went the distance striking out five while giving up only three walks and two earned runs.
Offensively Ingram led the way for the Lady Bears going 2-for-3 with a double, two runs scored and two RBIs.
Southwest will compete in two games on Saturday starting with a 2 p.m. game against Lamar St. followed by a 4:30 p.m. contest against Pratt CC.
