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GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - The Columbus State University softball team grabbed two wins to open up their play at the Pioneer Classic. The tournament is being held at Red Edmonds Field on the campus of Tusculum University. 

The Lady Cougars grabbed a 6-2 win in the opening game over King before dominating their way past UVA-Wise 9-0 in five innings.

The Lady Cougars will play New Haven at 10:00 a.m. Sunday before finishing the tournament battling the host school Tusculum at 12:00 p.m.
 

Game One

A six-hit and five-run third inning for Columbus State was the spark the Lady Cougars needed to pick up their 16th win of the season.

Chandler DesRochers got CSU kick-started in the third with a leadoff single before getting moved over to scoring position at second base. That's when the Lady Cougars started a long two-out rally with a flurry of big hits. 

Kirstin Reynolds smacked her second RBI-double of the game to bring DesRochers home making it a 2-0 game. The very next batter Elyse Ambrose mirrored Reynolds with a double of her own to bring it to 3-0. After an Elizabeth Perdue single it was Paris Poston who got in on the doubles party sending home two more runs to put CSU in front 5-0. Maddie Dodson would finish off the dominating third inning with an RBI-single as Columbus State never looked back.

Darby Demarest picked up three strikeouts in the last four outs of the game to shut the door on any potential comeback from King. The senior threw a complete game and finished with double-digit strikeouts (14) for the sixth time this season. 

The Tornado had an opportunity to start the scoring in the first inning when they loaded the bases with only one out. But Demarest (7-3) delivered for CSU getting a foul out and a strikeout to work her way out of the jam. 

Reynolds finished 2-for-3 with two RBI's while Poston also grabbed two RBI's on a 1-for-3 afternoon.
 

Game Two

The second game saw the Lady Cougars once again jump out to the big advantage in the early going. Reynolds kept her hot bat alive as she crushed a two-run home run to center in the top of the first giving CSU the 2-0 lead. Hannah Rose Corbin would follow it up by striking out the side in the bottom of the first.

Columbus State would explode for crooked numbers in the third and fourth innings, scoring three and four runs in each inning to go up 9-0. 

In the third it was Ambrose singling home a run before the next batter Perdue hit a double to left center putting the Lady Cougars in front 5-0. 

A Corbin RBI-single followed by a Morgan Elston home run, her third of the season is what gave CSU their ninth run of the game in the fourth inning. 

Corbin would pick up two more strikeouts in both the fourth and fifth innings inside the circle to close out the game for the Lady Cougars.

Elston had a huge second game going 3-for-3 at the plate with three runs and two RBI's including her home run. Reynolds finished 1-for-2 with two more runs and two RBI's to give her a total of four RBI's in the two games.

Corbin (6-2) threw the complete game shutout, going 5.0 innings giving up just two hits while striking out eight.