VALDOSTA, Ga. – The No. 2 ranked Valdosta State softball team rolled past the No. 22 ranked North Alabama Lions on Saturday afternoon at Steel's Diamond at Blazer Park with a Gulf South Conference doubleheader sweep (5-0, 6-1).
 
Prior to Saturday, the Lions (16-3, 5-2 GSC) were undefeated in league play and entered the weekend series as the top ranked team in the GSC. The Blazers (20-2, 9-1 GSC) derailed North Alabama's momentum with the pair of wins and extended their current winning streak to 10 games.
 
VSU wasted no time establishing a lead in game one, as Jaime Phillips ripped a double down the left field line to set first baseman Kiley Rusen up for an RBI opportunity. Rusen delivered and gave the Blazers their first lead of the day with an RBI single back through the box, before Fran Johnson kept the line moving with a gapper to left center field. With Johnson at second and Brandi Blount pinch running for Rusen at third, Brandy Morgan picked up her first of two RBI's on the day with a chopper to first base that plated Blount and put VSU in front 2-0. Johnson scored the third and final run of the inning on a sacrifice fly to left field off the bat of Morgan Butler, and Head Coach Thomas Macera's squad closed the inning with a 3-0 lead.
 
Winning pitcher Caitlyn Calhoun received two more runs of support in the third inning, starting with a Jennifer Phillips RBI single. The base hit drove in Rusen, who led off the inning with a walk and advanced into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Fran Johnson, and VSU upped their lead to 5-0 one batter later, thanks to a poor throw by UNA shortstop, Reagen Tittle.
 
The lead was plenty for Calhoun, who went the distance and allowed just two hits, while striking out five in the process. The win marked the junior's 11^th of the year and represented her fifth shutout of the season. Following the victory, Calhoun saw her ERA fall under the 1.00 mark at 0.99 on the year.
 
Game two began in favor of the Lions, thanks to a first inning solo shot off the bat of Libby Olinger. UNA ace Hillary Carpenter took over from there and held the Blazers scoreless in the first three innings.
 
The game turned in the fourth though, after a series of miscues by the North Alabama defense. With two outs in the frame, Johnson shook things up with a bunt single and took second on an errant attempt by UNA third baseman Harlie Barkley, who tried to throw the senior out at first base. Morgan, the reigning GSC Freshman of the Week, capitalized on the chance with a looping single into center field that knotted the contest up at 1-1.
 
The Blazers weren't done yet, however. Jennifer Phillips hit a routine grounder to third on the ensuing at bat, but Barkley committed her second throwing error of the inning on her attempt to make the out at first. A heads up base running effort by Morgan allowed her to score all the way from second on the play, and gave Valdosta State a 2-1 lead, their first of the game. North Alabama's woes continued one batter later, when Butler sent a hot shot out to short that went through Tittle's legs and allowed Jennifer Phillips to come across as the Blazers' third run of the contest.
 
One inning later, Chelsea Canara led the inning off with a single, and Courtney Albritton followed with a walk. Jaime Phillips layed down a sacrifice bunt, and Carpenter's throw to first sailed into right field after UNA second baseman Madeline Lee lost it in the sun. The error plated Imler, who pinch ran for Canara earlier in the frame, and Rusen made dealt extra damage with a frozen rope into the right center field gap that drove in two additional runs.
 
The 6-1 lead held until the game's conclusion, as Huntyre Elling scattered six hits over seven innings to improve her record to a perfect 6-0 on the year. The only run allowed by Elling was the first inning homer, and she picked up six strikeouts in the complete-game effort.
 
On the day, both Rusen and Johnson executed at the heart of the order on offense to lead the Blazers with .500 hitting efforts over the course of the two games. Rusen finished the day with three hits, three total bases, three RBI's, one walk, and one run scored.
 
The twin bill also featured a host of outstanding defensive plays including an outstanding diving catch by Morgan in the 6^th inning of game one that robbed UNA leadoff hitter Courtney Shields of an extra base hit.
 
The series will come to its conclusion tomorrow afternoon in Valdosta, Ga. with the weekend finale scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.