In Wednesday's long-awaited home opener for Southwest Softball, the host Lady Bears picked up a hard-fought 1-0 win in 8 innings in Game 1 over Baton Rouge CC, but could not finish the comeback in Game 2, falling 11-5 to the visiting Lady Bears.
 
"We played pretty good defense all night but we didn't make good enough adjustments on the second pitcher and I felt like we weren't as strong as I thought that we needed to be in the circle," Southwest head coach Shea Johnson said. "I'm not disappointed. I feel like we have a great team, but we have to plug it in."
 
In Game 1, Southwest (3-2) got a stellar pitching performance form Lauren Mounce as the freshman went the distance striking out seven while giving up only one hit and one walk.
 
"I started off nervous, I always do, but as the game progresses I always feel better and I'm so confident in my team, I never give up on my girls and I knew that they were going to pull through for me," Mounce said. "That is what really kept me going, I knew that they were going to have my back and I had theirs in the circle."
 
Mounce's defense proved vital at times, helping to keep Baton Rouge off the scoreboard. In the third, Baton Rouge had runners on second and third with only one out. Londyn Robertson caught a pop fly in shallow center field and fired the ball home to catcher Alyssa Leggett who applied the tag to the runner trying to score, keeping the game scoreless. Another example came in the 8^th when Morgan Gras snagged a fly ball with a difficult catch near third base stopping a Baton Rouge threat.
 
In the bottom half of the inning with a runner on base due to the International Tie Rule, Presley Dease delivered with a single up the middle bringing Maggie Wilks home to give Southwest the walk-off win.
 
"I was saying, we have to score and win the game and that is all that mattered," Dease said.
 
In Game 2, Baton Rouge rallied early with a pair of runs in the first inning. Southwest tried to answer back, but was unable to get its offense going. The deficit grew by three in the third inning with Southwest finding itself on the wrong end of a 6-0 score.
 
In the bottom half of the inning, Southwest got on the board as Leggett launched an 0-1 pitch over the left field wall making it a 6-1 game.
 
But Baton Rouge answered back with two more runs in the fourth putting Southwest down 8-1.
 
Trailing 11-1 in the fifth, the hosts rallied. An RBI double from Anlyssa Richardson was followed up by a Baton Rouge error during a Liberty Gillihan at bat which allowed Richardson to score. Next up was Dease who cleared the bases with a two-run home run to left making it an 11-5 game.
 
The rally, unfortunately, ran out for Southwest as it couldn't generate any more runs in the game.  
 
Abby Pevey finished with two hits while Dease had two RBIs and a run scored.
 
Southwest will be back in action on Tuesday with a doubleheader at John Melvin University in Crowley. First pitch of Game 1 is scheduled for 1 p.m.