DANVILLE, Va. - LaGrange and Averett split a USA South doubleheader Saturday. The Panthers (17-7, 8-6 USA South) took the first game 7-4, while the Cougars (14-6, 8-2 USA South) salvaged a split with a 7-2 win in the second game.
The Panthers banged out 11 hits in the first game. Dani Gravett had two doubles, while Alison Jiles and Danielle Newbern also had two hits. Jiles had a double included in her two hits.
Olivia Wolfe (9-3) pitched into the sixth inning to get the win in the first game. Wolfe allowed the four runs, seven hits, did not walk a batter and struck out seven. Kara Patterson got the final five outs to close out the win.
The Panthers built a 4-1 lead after four innings. Jiles led off the first with a single and scored as Gravett reached on an error. In the second, Jiles had an RBI double and Courtney Beshel a run-scoring singe.
In the fifth, the Panthers tacked on two more runs to go up 6-1. Newbern drove in Gravett, who had led off the inning with a double, with a single and later scored on a wild pitch.
Gravett and Newbern followed the same script in the sixth to give the Panthers a 7-2 lead. Gravett doubled with one out and came around to score on Newbern's two-out single to right field.
The Cougars got two runs back off Wolfe in the bottom of the inning to make it 7-4. Patterson got the final two outs of the sixth and closed out the win in the seventh.
In the second game, the Cougars used a four-run fourth inning to break the game open and take a 7-0 lead.
Patterson (3-1) started the second game for the Panthers. She gave up six runs, but only three were earned. Gravett finished on the mounds, allowing a run in 2-2/3 innings of work.
Beshel and Newbern had four of the Panthers' eight hits. Newbern drove in both Panther runs in the seventh with a double. She finished the doubleheader with four RBIs, after entering the day with only three on the season.
The Panthers play at Greensboro on Sunday in a USA South doubleheader.
