VALDOSTA – No. 10 Valdosta State softball shut out the 25th-ranked West Alabama Tigers 7-0 Saturday afternoon.

The Blazers (32-6, 18-3 Gulf South Conference) rode the strength of a hot start – scoring four runs in the first inning against the Tigers (29-10, 18-6 GSC).

In the bottom of the second, freshman Jayme Prandine led off the with a single to right center before Taylor Macera doubled for her second hit of the game as Prandine came around for another run to make it 5-0.

Neither offense did much damage until the bottom of the sixth as freshman Lexi Patterson and junior Morgan Hill got going with a pair of base hits. Junior Kayla Tosone came on to pinch run for Patterson and Prandine laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Tosone and Hill to second and third respectively.

With runners in scoring position, dangerous sophomore Abby Sulte blasted a single to center field to score Tosone and Hill for the final margin.

Anchored by another dominant outing from reigning GSC Pitcher of the Week, senior Samantha Richards, the Blazers played good enough defense to keep the Tigers quiet and added more run support down the stretch to secure the series win.

“We just talked about how we needed to make adjustments on their pitcher,” VSU head coach Thomas Macera said. “We knew what she was going to throw and we just didn’t do a great job with what we needed to do (in Game 1 Friday). We were just more disciplined today and sitting on what we needed to and just did a better job in the box.”

Richards (23-3) went all seven innings – striking out 10 Tigers along with two walks, three hits and no runs to pick up her seventh shutout of the season.

Richards, who has been the GSC Pitcher of the Week three times this season, leads the conference in wins (23) and strikeouts (196) and ranks second in ERA at 1.92.

“There is a lot of pressure for them because she throws hard, that’s one thing. She moves the ball around – she doesn’t have just one pitch that she needs to rely on,” Macera said of his ace. “For them to have to prepare for her, it’s hard because she’s not one-dimensional. She can do a few different things. She’s really hard to figure out.”

The Blazers bounced back from a 3-1 loss to the Tigers in the series opener on Friday with a 7-4 win in the nightcap to even the series. They secured the series win with substance rather than style as Saturday’s game marked the fourth time this season that the Blazers failed to hit a home run.

As Macera pointed out, the Blazers still found a way to win with nine hits and six RBIs. Coincidentally, the Blazers are 4-0 when they do not hit a home run this season.

“Today, we didn’t hit a home run,” Macera said. “People think the only way we score runs is if we hit home runs and today we didn’t hit any home runs. We strung hits together and we ran bases well and that’s a good thing, to know we can do it without the home runs and just had the timely hits. That’s the big deal.”

UP NEXT

The Blazers hit the road this weekend to take on Alabama Huntsville in a key GSC series matchup.

From there, they’ll travel to face Auburn Montgomery in a three-game series the following weekend. The Blazers return home for the regular season finale as rival West Florida comes to town for a three-game series April 29-30.

Saturday’s matchup at Huntsville begins with a doubleheader set for 2 p.m.

“They’ve both got really good hitting. They both have really good pitching. They’re like us, you know, and they play defense well so we stack up well against them, but they are two teams that you’ve got to play your best ball and they’re two teams that are going to fight you all the way and you’re at their house so we’ve got to really show up and play hard,” Macera said of the upcoming road swing. “The way our season’s stacked up at the end, it’s gonna be challenging but that’s what you want. It’ll really set us up for postseason so it’s going to be interesting here at the end.”