VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Blazer softball team took care of business on Sunday afternoon with a 1-0 win over the No. 22 ranked North Alabama Lions at Steel's Diamond at Blazer Park in Valdosta, Ga. The Gulf South Conference victory put an exclamation point on a huge three-game sweep for Valdosta State over the UNA and allowed the Blazers to overtake the Lions as the top ranked team in the GSC.
 
The victory extended the red hot Blazers to an eleven-game winning streak and bumped the teams' overall record to 21-2, 10-1 in Gulf South Conference play. Meanwhile, the Lions left Valdosta with their third straight loss and saw their record fall to 16-4, 5-3 against league opponents.
 
Caitlyn Calhoun proved to be the highlight of the day for Valdosta State after delivering one of her best pitching outings of the 2015 season. The righty allowed just two hits on the day and struck out nine batters throughout seven innings of work. The victory marked Calhoun's third straight shutout and her sixth shutout of the season.
 
The Blazers provided the only run of the afternoon on an interesting series of events in the fourth inning that began with a Jennifer Phillips walk. Phillips advanced to second when UNA pitcher Hillary Carpenter was unable to cleanly field a Morgan Butler grounder and was forced to take the out at first. One batter later, Phillips moved up again on a passed ball before Samantha Smith popped up to the pitcher. With two outs, Chelsea Canara hit a foul ball down the right field line that was dropped by Libby Olinger. Canara took full advantage of the extra opportunity and blistered a low laser that rolled all the way to the wall in center field for an RBI double.
 
Calhoun took over from there and retired nine of the final ten batters she faced to lock up the victory and improve her season record to 12-1.
 
The game-winning hit by Canara in the fourth inning represented one of just three hits for the Blazer offense on the day, but was enough to help VSU tag the second loss of the weekend on Carpenter, who entered the series as the conference's top pitcher with a 0.74 ERA and an 8-0 record.
 
The Blazers will have one day off before getting right back to it on Tuesday, March 10, with a non-conference doubleheader against the Florida Tech Panthers. The twin bill is slated for a 3:00 p.m. start at Steel's Diamond and will be carried live via video and live stats at www.vstateblazers.com.