AUBURN, Ala. – Opening the team's 25th season, the App State Softball team (1-1) split its Friday doubleheader, beating the Southern Illinois Salukis (0-1) to open the day 9-3, before falling 8-0 to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the second game. App State's win over the Salukis marked the first time the team started the season 1-0 since the 2020 season.
In head coach Whitney Jones' debut game as the head coach of the Mountaineers, the Mountaineers started fast and pulled ahead immediately, leading to a six-run win. The victory for Jones in her debut game marked the first time in program history that an App State head coach has won their debut game.
Fresh off a stellar rookie season,
Grace Barrett kicked off her sophomore year with five hits in seven at-bats, which included three doubles and three RBI. Barrett wrapped up the day with a 3-3 game against the Tar Heels. Additionally,
Julia Girk,
Hannah Forbes,
Macy Hamby and
Makayla McClain each tallied a multi-hit day, while
Olivia Cook and
Leah Gore also recorded hits in what was a 15-hit doubleheader for the Mountaineers.
Making her App State debut against the Salukis,
Sophie Moshos picked up the win to open the game, coming on in relief of
Sejal Neas and retiring 12 of the 15 hitters she faced. The lefty from Brazil, Ind., struck out two hitters in her four frames of work and stranded the bases loaded in the fourth inning to keep Southern Illinois off the board.
Sejal Neas and
Ava Beamesderfer also saw action on Friday, each pitching at least three innings of work.
How it Happened
App State 9, Southern Illinois 3
The Mountaineers started hot and finished hot to open the season against the Salukis as they tallied two first-inning runs and three seventh-inning runs to claim a 9-3 victory, Jones' first as a collegiate head coach.
Starting the game on offense, App State wasted no time in scoring the game's first run as both McClain and Barrett singled to lead off the game, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. After Southern Illinois recorded the first out, Cook ran out an infield hit to load the bases, setting up Hamby with an RBI chance.
With two strikes, Hamby delivered a shot into left field, sending home McClain who marked App State's first run scored in 2025. With the bases still loaded and only one out, the Salukis tallied the second out of the inning, but
Summer Simpson worked a four-pitch walk to force home Barrett, making the score 2-0 in favor of App State after a half inning.
Neas was the first Mountaineer pitcher to toe the rubber in 2025 and opened her senior season with a strikeout and a scoreless frame. Neas came back out for the second and struck out her second, third and fourth hitters in a row, keeping the score 2-0 in favor of the Mountaineers as play headed to the third.
Southern Illinois scored its first run in the third inning to trim the Mountaineer lead back to one, but Neas rebounded nicely and stranded two runners to keep App State ahead into the fourth. After seeing the first Mountaineer hitter go down on strikes, Forbes walked and Girk reached on a bunt single, her first career hit, to put runners on the corners for McClain with one out.
Again with a two-strike count, McClain deposited a single into center field to score Forbes, and then Barrett struck a two-run double to the left-center field gap, making the score 5-1 with one out in the fourth inning. Barrett advanced to third base on a wild pitch and Gore sent her home with a sacrifice fly to put the Mountaineers ahead five runs before the end of the inning. Gore's sac fly was her first collegiate RBI.
The Salukis responded with a home run in the top of the fifth, and then loaded the bases with nobody out, forcing a pitching change. The Mountaineers turned to Moshos, who made her App State debut in game one, looking to keep the score in favor of the Mountaineers. Moshos forced a popout, a lineout and a flyout to keep the Salukis to just the one run to start the inning. To that point, the Mountaineer pitching staff had stranded six Saluki baserunners.
App State again loaded the bases in the fifth inning, but couldn't score and Moshos trekked back to the circle for her second inning of work. The lefty worked around a lead-off walk to post another scoreless frame, capping it off with a strikeout. After five innings, the Mountaineers led 6-2.
Gore's first collegiate hit highlighted the sixth inning, but a strong seventh inning on offense helped App State pull away. Southern Illinois retired the first hitter in the inning, but after a Simpson walk and a Forbes double to put two runners in scoring position, Girk scorched a liner into left field that scored Simpson, putting App State up five in the final inning. App State scored twice more to make it 9-2, and Moshos retired the Salukis in the bottom half to secure a 1-0 start for the Black and Gold.
Game 1 Notes
Home runs
App: N/A
SIU: Baker (1), Carder (1)
WP –
Sophie Moshos (1-0): 4 IP, 2 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts
SV – N/A
LP – Kiana McDowell (0-1): 3.1 IP, 4 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts
App State 0, North Carolina 8
A run in the first and then three runs in the second helped North Carolina build an early lead, which eventually led to a run-rule victory for UNC to cap off App State's opening-day doubleheader. App State tallied just four hits in the contest, three of which came from Barrett.
App State started game two on offense and immediately worked to get a runner into scoring position as Barrett swatted a double into left field, marking her second double of the day to that point. Facing first-inning trouble, UNC starter Kenna Raye Dark worked around the double and left the runner stranded to keep the game scoreless.
UNC scored just two batters into the game to give it an early lead, using a bunt single and a double to open the scoring. The Tar Heel defense put up a clean inning in the second, and then scored three more runs in their half of the second to quickly jump ahead by four runs. Rayna Blackwell delivered the biggest blow of the frame with her first home of the season.
Needing an answer, Forbes led off the third inning with a single, her second hit of the doubleheader, before Barret stroked a single into center field to put two runners on with two outs. UNC tallied a strikeout to end the frame, leaving the Mountaineers scoreless through three innings.
Beamesderfer, who came on in relief in the second inning, posted a scoreless bottom half of the third inning as she retired the first four hitters she saw in relief. The sophomore came back out for the fourth and picked up her first strikeout, but UNC tallied a two-run double to make it 6-0 as play headed to the fifth.
A scoreless fifth inning from both sides quickly helped the game progress to the sixth, which saw Barrett record her third hit of the game and fifth hit of the doubleheader with one out. It was her third double of the day. North Carolina left her stranded, however, and scored two sixth-inning runs to force a run-rule victory.
Game 2 Notes
Home runs
App: N/A
UNC: Blackwell (1)
WP – Kenna Raye Dark (1-0): 6 IP, 4 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 6 strikeouts
SV – N/A
LP –
Sophie Moshos (1-1): 1.2 IP, 6 hits, 4 runs, 0 walks, 1 strikeout
Up Next
The Mountaineers will continue action at the Tiger Invitational on Saturday with another doubleheader. App State will face the host school Auburn Tigers and the North Carolina Tar Heels for the second time in as many days. First pitch against the Tigers is set for 11 a.m. ET (10 a.m. CT).
