The Lady Bears entered Tuesday's road double-header at John Melvin University with the right frame of mind.
And it translated to strong play on the field as Southwest won Game 1, 6-2 before shutting out the Lady Millers in Game 2, 11-0.
"We were well-rested and coming off of the Baton Rouge split, I thought that we left something on the field," Southwest head coach Shea Johnson said. "Our mindset was to go out and to show that we can play with anybody."
In Game 1, freshman Lauren Mounce was a huge contributor for the Lady Bears (5-2). She went all seven innings in the circle, giving up only five hits, two runs (one earned) and no walks. She also struck out 16 batters, just one shy of the school record of 17 set by Jensen Gremillion in 2022.
Mounce got immediate help from her offense as Anlyssa Richardson and Shaylee Ingram led off the game each with a single. Liberty Gillihan was next and reached on an error allowing both Richardson and Ingram to score putting the Lady Bears up 2-0.
After Mounce struck out the side in the first, Southwest added another run as Gillihan doubled, bringing Ingram home and increasing the lead to 3-0.
Mounce retired the side in order in the second and third innings, striking out five of the six batters that she faced over that span.
She ran into some trouble in the fourth as John Melvin rallied to cut into the Southwest lead, making it a 3-2 game. But Mounce regained her composure once again in the fifth, striking out the side.
In the sixth, the Lady Bear offense shined once again. With one out, Mounce homered to center pushing the lead to 4-2. After Abby Pevey doubled, she was brought home by a single from Morgan Gras making it a 5-2 game.
The Lady Bears added their final run in the seventh when Alyssa Leggett doubled to center allowing Ingram to touch home for her third run scored of the game.
In addition to her three runs scored, Ingram also finished with two hits. Gras also had two hits and an RBI.
In Game 2, Karleigh Daze got the start for the Lady Bears and battled out of an early jam allowing no Lady Miller to score, despite a threat. Southwest also had a bit of trouble getting its offense going as both teams were held scoreless through the first two innings.
The Lady Bears broke through in the third and in a big way. Three-consecutive singles from Gillihan, Pevey and Presley Dease, with the latter two scoring a run each, was followed by a three-run home run by Leggett during the ensuing at bat, pushing the Southwest lead to 5-0.
Daze was relieved by Pevey in the third and she picked right up where her teammate left off continuing to be a thorn in the side of John Melvin offense.
Another Southwest rally in the fourth added additional runs. Errors on back-to-back at bats put Sasha King and Richardson on, respectively. And after Ingram walked to load the bases, Gillihan hit a sacrifice fly to score another run. Pevey followed that up with an RBI single before Dease cleared the bases with a three-run home run, giving Southwest a 10-0 lead.
The final Lady Bear run came in the fifth when Gillihan capped-off her strong day with an RBI single making it an 11-0 game.
Pevey closed out John Melvin in the fifth preserving the win for the Lady Bears.
Dease led the charge for the Lady Bears going 3-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored and four RBIs. Pevey finished with two hits, two runs scored and two RBIs while Gillihan had two hits, one run scored and two RBIs.
Next up for the Lady Bears is the a three-game set at the Coyote Classic in Orange Beach, AL. The first of the three comes Friday at 6 p.m. when Southwest faces Andrew College.
