Shane Thomas | The Valdosta Daily TimesBlazers players mob second baseman Tana McDaniel (17) after her home run against the West Georgia Wolves in fourth inning of the series finale on Saturday.

VALDOSTA –– Cushions are built for easy rest. The Valdosta State Blazers built one early on and never looked back.

The Blazers (31-13, 17-9 Gulf South Conference) took the decisive third game of their weekend series with the West Georgia Wolves (23-21, 13-14 GSC) 7-1 on Saturday.

It all started with a grand slam. Well, something like that.

In the bottom of the first inning, Blazers center fielder Taylor Hartenbach singled to load the bases as Haley Garrett approached the plate. Garrett sprayed a base hit through the infield and put the Wolves on their heels. Two throwing errors by the Wolves acted as a grand slam for the Blazers as Chelsea Canara, Hayley Cruthers, Hartenbach and Garrett all scored to give the Blazers a 4-0 lead.

“When you go up 4-0 in the first inning in college softball, that’s a lot for a team to make up,” Blazers coach Thomas Macera said. “You go down one, two runs, that’s just a softball game. If we go down 4-0 in the beginning of the game, that’s a lot to ask of a team to come back from that. For (West Georgia) to make two bad throwing errors right there, it just helps you out and we got runs early.”

Garrett believes the hit gave the team a lot of confidence and allowed the team to keep the pressure on the rest of the game.

“It definitely gave us confidence,” Garrett said. “We also knew the game wasn’t over at that point. We still needed to focus and choose good pitches. Everyone felt like, ‘Hey, the game’s not over, we still need to hit then we get two more bombs. Everyone pulled their weight, even when we were up.”

The Wolves responded with an Emily Miles RBI double down the left field line to score Marley Stowers to make it a 4-1 game. With runners on the corners, Kathryn Carter got Sierra Stella, who scored the winning run in Game 2 of Friday’s doubleheader, to ground out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the third, Hartenbach drilled a solo home run to deep center field, her fourth of the season, to put the Blazers ahead 5-1.

The long ball worked well for the Blazers on Friday and Saturday was more of the same as second baseman Tana McDaniel crushed a home run of her own in the bottom of the fourth to give the Blazers a 6-1 lead.

With Carter pitching another strong game from the mound and the Blazers’ bats coming alive, the brand of softball Blazers fans have come to expect was in full force and as Garrett said, that makes the team a tough matchup for anybody.

“We’re definitely tough,” Garrett said. “If we hit and pitch like we know we can, I’m sure we can be conference champions.”

Blazers short stop Jessica Mohl came to the plate in the bottom of the sixth as the Waffle House Batter of the Game for those in attendance. Mohl banged an RBI triple that scored Tara McIntyre and fans in attendance a free waffle. The Blazers took a 7-1 lead and cruised to the finish line.

Carter improved to 14-2 this season after pitching another complete game for the Blazers. Carter struck out four and gave up seven hits but along with the defense around her, held the Wolves to one run in the victory.

“Yesterday we didn’t pitch bad, we just didn’t pitch good enough,” Macera said. “Today, we held them to a run and pitched really well. I think West Georgia hit four balls hard which is better than what happened yesterday –– it’s how the pitcher gets the outs is what’s important. Kat pitched well again, she’s pitching way better than she was even weeks ago. She’s gotten better every week and that’s what you need.”

Mohl increased her batting average to .456 with her 2-for-3 effort at the plate on Saturday. Mohl also assisted on four put-outs in the field.

For the Wolves, starter Adriana Durden picked up the loss as she gave up six runs (four earned) and four hits in three innings. Danielle Easterly came on and struck out two while surrendering three hits in the loss.

The Wolves got a 2-for-3 game from center fielder Katie Spinks while Game 2 hero Sierra Stella went 0-for-4 in the series finale.

The win moved the Blazers up to fourth in the GSC standings and puts them just one win behind Lee for third. Non-conference foe Albany State comes to Steel’s Diamond on Tuesday for doubleheader action. With six teams having won at least 17 games in conference play, Macera sees getting a series win as an opportunity to catapult his team into the GSC tournament.

“(The win) is real big because the conference is tight right now,” Macera said. “We hadn’t won a conference weekend series in four weeks so that’s a big deal for us. To finally come out here and get a series win in the month, it’s been hurting so we really needed to win today to make a run to get in the conference tournament alone. Our conference is so tough, if you drop too many games, you won’t even make the tournament. Everybody has to play so you have to make the wins.”

First pitch for Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Rams is set for 4 p.m.