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By: Stephen Williams

AMERICUS, Ga. – The Columbus State University softball team made it six consecutive victories with back-to-back wins over Georgia Southwestern on Wednesday. The games were played at Lady 'Canes Softball Field in Americus, Ga.
 
Columbus State (9-4) took the opening game 9-3 and followed it up with a 5-2 win in game two. The games were played as non-conference contests with the annual Peach Belt Conference games coming later in the season in Columbus.
 
Columbus State heads off to Hickory, N.C. this weekend for four games. The Lady Cougars will play Carson-Newman and Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday before taking on King and Catawba on Sunday.
 
Game One
 
The Lady Cougars broke out the power bats in Wednesday's opener, starting in the second inning. Freshman Elizabeth Perdue launched her second home run of the season to drive home three and put CSU on the board first.
 
CSU continued to add on with another three-run inning in the fourth. Lee Anne Rees got the scoring started with a RBI single that brought home Keeli Waugh. Kia Smith then singled in Perdue and Calli Star added a run-scoring knock of her own to drive in Katie White.
 
Georgia Southwestern (7-7) put two on the board in the fourth and one in the fifth, but Columbus State matched all three runs via the long ball.
 
Waugh hit her first homer of the season, a solo shot, in the fifth and Star connected for a two-run shot to cap the scoring in the sixth.
 
Sydney Barker (4-1) went the distance in the circle for the Lady Cougars, allowing just three runs on nine hits.
 
Smith, Star and Waugh all had three hits in the opening victory. CSU had 15 as a team, with eight of the nine starters picking up at least one.
 
Game Two
 
In the second game, four first-inning runs would be more than enough for the Lady Cougars.
 
White singled to lead off the game for Columbus State, but two groundouts left the senior on third with the game still scoreless. From there, CSU would get four straight hits started by McKenzie Fagioli.
 
Fagioli's infield single scored the first run of the game and Kailey Boone backed it up with a hit of her own. With two on, Rachel Rhodes unloaded the bases with a double to centerfield to make it 3-0. Waugh finished the scoring effort off with another knock, one of her five hits in the doubleheader.
 
Hanna Manley (1-1) made the four runs stand up for the Lady Cougars, picking up her first victory in a CSU uniform. The right-hander gave up just two runs in a complete game effort.
 
Fagioli, Rees and Waugh turned in multi-hit games in the second of the twin bill, with Rhodes driving in three of the five CSU runs.