Sydney Gray homered twice and Kaylin Kinney tossed Nebraska's first complete game of the season as the Husker softball team won its final game at the Razorback Rumble with a 5-1 victory over South Alabama Saturday.
Gray, who went 3-for-4 with a double and two home runs, drove in three runs for Nebraska (11-11). Gray was the star at the plate while Kinney delivered the Huskers' best pitching performance of the season.
Kinney (7-6) scattered six hits and allowed only one run in a complete-game effort. She held South Alabama to a season-low one run, while earning her third victory of the weekend.
Madison Lagle (1-1) took the loss for South Alabama (13-7-1), allowing two runs in 2.0 innings. The Jagaurs, who own three victories over ranked opponents this season, threw three different pitchers at Nebraska's hitters and the Huskers scored against all three.
Nebraska scored all the runs Kinney would need with a two-run first inning. Brooke Andrews got things started with a one-out double. She scored on a two-out RBI single from Bella Bacon and Gray followed with an RBI double that brought Bacon home and gave Nebraska a 2-0 lead.
Gray then led off the fourth inning with a home run to stretch the Husker lead to 3-0.
South Alabama manufactured a run to trim the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth. A leadoff a walk eventually turned into a run on a sacrifice fly. The Jaguars went on to have runners at second and third before Kinney had a clutch strikeout to end the inning.
Nebraska immediately got the run back in the top of the sixth when Gray led off with her second home run of the game. Leading 4-1, Caitlynn Neal followed with a double and Katelyn Caneda singled and stole second to put Huskers on second and third with no outs. Alina Felix then scored Neal with an RBI fielder's choice to make it 5-1 After a strikeout, Billie Andrews was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out but the next two Huskers were retired.
Kinney then retired South Alabama in order in the sixth and seventh to wrap her seventh win of the season.
Nebraska returns home for a pair of games on Tuesday at Bowlin Stadium. The Huskers will take on Northern Colorado (Noon) and Maine (5 p.m.) in a pair of games that feature free admission after the games were just added to the schedule last week.
Post-Game Notes
- Nebraska finished the Razorback Rumble with a 3-1 record.
- The Huskers stole 11 bases in four games at the Razorback Rumble. Entering the weekend, Nebraska had stolen seven bases in its first 18 games of the season.
- A total of seven Huskers hit .333 or better at the Razorback Rumble.
- Kaylin Kinney tossed Nebraska's first complete game of the season. It was her fifth career complete game and first career 7.0-inning complete game.
- Kinney pitched in three of Nebraska's four games at the Razorback Rumble, going 3-0 with a 0.98 ERA in 14.1 innings.
- Sydney Gray went 3-for-3 with a double and two home runs. She set a career high with three extra-base hits and tied her career high with two home runs, the fourth two-homer game of her career.
- Bella Bacon had an RBI in the first inning. She drove in a run in all four games of the Razorback Rumble, finishing the tournament with six RBIs.
- Billie Andrews singled in the fifth inning to extend her hitting streak to 17 games.