CLINTON, Miss. – The Valdosta State Blazers split a pair of Gulf South Conference matchups (7-3, 5-13) with Mississippi College on Saturday in Clinton, Miss. at The MC Softball Complex.
 
The Blazers exploded in the top half of the first inning of game one with four runs, after Kiley Rusen just missed a solo homer and singled off the left field wall to spark the rally in the opening frame. Hayley Cruthers reached second base on a long fly ball  in the ensuing at bat that was misplayed in left field, and Rusen, who advanced to third on the play, came in to score one batter later on a Heather Robinson grounder to shortstop Alexia Harmon. Brandy Morgan followed with an RBI double down the left field line, and Taylor Hartenbach singled to center field one batter later to score both Morgan and Chelsea Canara, who reached on single earlier in the inning.
 
Working with a 4-0 lead early, Caitlyn Calhoun (18-4) went to work and held the Choctaws scoreless through the first five frames. Calhoun, who struck out 11 in the contest, allowed one run to cross in the sixth and gave up a two run homer to pinch hitter Shelby Miller in the seventh, but that was all the senior would allow.
 
Following the strong start in the first, the Blazers added on in the third with a solo homer off the bat of Robinson and tacked on two more insurance runs in the sixth to help secure the win.
 
Game two initially looked promising for the red and black, as the Blazers struck early yet again for three first inning runs, the first of which came on a Jaime Phillips solo shot to center field for her seventh of the season.
 
The Lady Choctaws returned fire, however, scoring one run in the first before Megan Everett doubled to right center with the bases loaded in the second inning to plate three unearned runs and put MC on top 4-3.
 
Robinson homered for the second time of the day in the top of the third to knot the game up at 4-4, but Ty Buckley helped the Lady Choctaws reclaim a 5-4 lead in the bottom half of the inning with a solo blast of her own.
 
With Lauren Mulligan aboard in the fourth inning, MC added on to their one run advantage when Madison Oliver failed to execute on consecutive sacrifice bunt attempts before driving an 0-2 pitch over the left center field wall for a two run homer. The pair of runs gave the Lady Choctaws a lead they would not relinquish, as Mississippi College outscored the Blazers 6-1 over the final three frames.
 
With the loss, Valdosta State moved to 27-9-2 on the year and 13-8-1 in GSC play, while Mississippi College shifted to 26-11 overall and 15-8 against league opponents.
 
Huntyre Elling suffered the loss in game two to fall to 8-5, while MC's Penny Nichols pitched around ten Blazer hits to leave ten VSU runners stranded and pick up the win to improve to 12-4 on the year.
 
The three game set concludes tomorrow afternoon in Clinton, Miss. at 2:00 p.m. EST, with live coverage available right here at www.vstateblazers.com.