MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider Softball team opened Great American Conference play with a doubleheader sweep of league-newcomer Oklahoma Baptist by scores of 4-0 and 5-0 as starters Kaylee Garner and Kimmy Beasley combined to give up just four hits, while striking out a collective 13 batters on Friday afternoon at the SAU Softball Complex.
 
The Lady Muleriders (10-0, 2-0 GAC) produced 16 hits leading to a combined nine runs as they provided their starting pitchers with more than enough run support. For the first time in 2016, Southern Arkansas did not have a ball leave the yard, while four doubles in the second game were the only extra base hits of the afternoon for SAU.
 
In the conference opener, Garner (5-0) went the distance for her fourth complete game of the year, while firing her second one-hitter of the season. The lone blemish in the hits column came with one out in the top of the third inning as OBU's Shalee Cordell placed a double down the left-field line that just barely caught chalk. An infield pop-out and a strikeout looking retired the Lady Bison as Southern Arkansas used the home half of the third inning to provide Garner with a three-run cushion as they finally cracked OBU starter McKenzie Jones.
 
Chelsea Jordan led off the inning with a single to left field that saw her advance to second on a fielding error. With one out in the inning, Brooke Goad singled through the right side to put runners at the corners for Maddie Dow who pushed an RBI single just passed a diving Jill Shipman at shortstop scoring Jordan. After an Ashton Atwell ground out put Goad at third and Dow at second, Darian Harris delivered with her first of two big hits on the afternoon as she laced a two-RBI single down the right-field line putting Southern Arkansas up 3-0 through three innings.
 
Garner worked a perfect fourth and fifth innings and pitched around a runner in the sixth before her teammates added a run in the bottom half of the sixth as a sacrifice fly by Dow scored Liz Hudgins who reached earlier in the inning via a one-out walk.
 
The second helping of Friday's twin bill saw Kimmy Beasley recorded her fifth complete game of the season in less than an hour and twenty-five minutes to improve to 5-0. After a lead-off single to OBU's Hannah Morris in the visitor-half of the second inning, Beasley sat down the next ten Lady Bison before a one-out single to centerfield by Shipman in the fifth inning resulted in OBU's third hit of the game.
 
By the time Oklahoma Baptist slowed Beasley down in the fifth inning, Harris had already collected a first-pitch two-run double to left center that plated Atwell and Dow in the previous half-inning as SAU cushioned Beasley's start with a pair of runs. The Lady Muleriders' final three runs came in the home-half of the sixth inning as Goad and Dow collected back-to-back doubles to lead off the inning giving SAU a 3-0 lead, before Tyler Casada pushed a two-out opposite field single through the right side that scored Harris and pinch-runner Kim Whelehon.
 
Goad and Dow lead SAU with four hits apiece and Atwell and Harris added three hits each, while the latter led Southern Arkansas with four RBIs as Dow added three. SAU drew four walks on the day and struck out only three times in 49 at-bats.
 
The Lady Muleriders return to the diamond tomorrow with the second-half of the GAC-opening four-game slate scheduled to being at noon from the SAU Softball Complex. Live stats and live video with audio will be available for the doubleheader.
 
Be sure to visit muleriderathletics.com for pregame and postgame recaps, coach's shows with head coach Jason Anderson and other information and news regarding the 2016 Lady Mulerider Softball team.