Southern Miss softball opened the season with a dominating win over Southeast Missouri at the Southern Miss Softball Complex on Friday night. The Golden Eagles are 1-0. This is the first time Southern Miss has run-ruled an opponent on opening day since 2020 against Mississippi Valley State.
Kayla Giardina cleans the house by capitalizing on the game. Giardina completed three-hit shutouts, two strikeouts, and two walks allowed.
“Really excited about our game tonight, really proud of our team for coming out in game number one and earning every bit of that,“ said Coach Natalie Poole.
“Kayla did a great job on the mound, setting the tone for us. Offensively we just got it going right away, we had some plate discipline where we needed to and we also had some moments where we drove in some runs.“
In the second inning, Kayce Bennett drew a walk as the lead-off batter. The 2–0 lead was short-lived, however, as Maddison Johnson followed Hannah Christian by drawing a walk with the bases loaded, capping off a three-run inning. SEMO pitcher Willow Haren loaded the bases with two outs as the Golden Eagles expanded the lead 3-0. Nealy McMannus ripped a hard-hit single to left field to drive in a key RBI.
Keeping the rhythm going, Giardina worked a flawless top of the third, prompting three straight groundouts to quickly return the bat to the offense. Redshirt sophomore Kayce Bennett sparked the inning with a leadoff double to right-center, followed by freshman Issie Coker’s RBI double down the left-field line. Kinsley Gordon-Sivley added a sacrifice fly to right field to score Coker, and two batters later, Hannah Christian delivered a two-out, two-RBI single up the middle to push the run total to seven.
The dominance of Giardina continues as she finished with five innings pitched, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out two.
“I got their lineup to chase a lot of pitches up in the zone,” Giardina said. “As they got more disciplined at the plate, my defense really showed up behind me.”
