Featured photo by Preston Todd
Story by Jacob Burgess
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MURFREESBORO, Tenn– Middle Tennessee softball (6–13) closes its home invitational with two wins, 3-1 over North Alabama (14–5) and 6-1 over Detroit Mercy (0–8).
Kamryn Carcich led the way for MTSU in the circle and at the plate. Carcich surrendered a solo shot in the top of the fourth inning. Not phased though, she stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning and hit a two-run home run to dead-center.
The Blue Raiders kept the scoring going in the next inning with a solo home run by Ava Tepe who performed at and behind the plate. Tepe gunned a runner down earlier in the third inning and almost caught another runner inching off first base.
Strong pitching continued in the second game of the day with Claire Woods getting the start. After pitching four innings the day before, Woods pitched a full game, only allowing one run in the first inning on back-to-back doubles.
“Right now, I’ve just been trusting the process and taking it one pitch at a time. I know my teammates are going to have my back on offense and defense.” Woods said.
MTSU used base hits and aggressive baserunning to jump ahead early with four singles and three stolen bases in the first inning alone. The Blue Raiders tacked on three more runs in the second inning, using sacrifice bunts and singles to move runners around.
Capping off the scoring was Ansley Blevins, who hit a solo home run to cap off the weekend for MTSU.
“This past week we just really got to hitting outside pitches and staying with the ball, sticking to our approach and it shows in the game.” Blevins said.
The Blue Raiders have two more games against Detroit Mercy before traveling to El Paso to start conference play against UTEP.
“I’m taking the fact that we had a couple pitchers throw complete innings and that was good,” MTSU head coach Jeff Breeden said. “I think Woods threw really well today. I think Cam (Karcich) was awesome this weekend as well. Amaya is on a big hitting streak, she is scoring runs for us and getting hits for us. Our offense is coming around, so we are playing a lot better the last ten games including today then we did early on in the season, so I hope we are hitting a good stride here.”
Jacob Burgess is a sportswriter for MTSU Sidelines. If you have information for a story, you can contact him at jkb7z@mtmail.mtsu.edu. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com. Also, follow us on Facebook and Instagram @mtsusidelines, or on X @MTSUSidelines.
