The Cleveland State softball team said goodbye to their sophomores on Friday afternoon at Lady Cougar Field as they split their doubleheader with Southwest Tennessee in the regular season finale.
After the teams split a pair of games on Thursday, the Lady Cougars took game one by a final score of 6-1 while the Lady Saluquis used a late inning comeback in game two to take a 2-0 win and salvage a split for the day and the series.
The Lady Cougars struck first with a pair of runs in their first turn at the plate.
Sara O'Rear started the rally with a double and later scored on a sacrifice fly from Emily Huston while Perry Hindi doubled in a run for a 2-0 lead.
The Lady Saluqis got one of those runs back in their half of the second as Alex Stanford singled in a run, but after that it was all Cleveland State.
Hindi doubled in another run in the third while four singles in the fourth pushed two more runs across as O'Rear singled in both runs for a 5-1 advantage. Huston put the finishing touches on game one with an RBI triple in the fifth as the home team secured the win.
Ida Watson tossed a gem for the Lady Cougars (21-27, 16-20) scattering six hits along the way to pick up the win. Taylor Thomas took the loss for Southwest Tennessee (12-42, 6-30).
Game two was a good old fashioned pitcher's duel as Kayla Wright for Southwest and Kelsey Haley for Cleveland State took turns hanging zeros on the board through the first, five innings.
Southwest Tennessee finally broke the ice in the top of the sixth as Dallas Chipman put her team in front with a long home run over the left field fence. Alissa Rice added an insurance run later in the frame by getting plunked with the bases full of Lady Saluqis for a 2-0 lead.
That would be all the run support that Wright would need as she quickly finished the game to get the win allowing only three hits while tossing the shutout. Haley suffered the loss while Allison Conley pitched in relief.
The Lady Cougars will now get ready for the Region VII Conference Tournament starting next weekend at a site to be determined.