WKU Softball (3-1) won its final game in the Aggie Classic with a convincing 13-1 run-rule win against the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders (1-4) Sunday afternoon. 

WKU’s fifth-year senior Shelby Nunn started her third game of the season. She bounced back from her previous outing that saw her not make it out of the first inning. Nunn pitched four innings, allowing one run on four hits. Redshirt freshman Kelsie Houchens came for the final inning of action, allowing no hits and no runs. 

Senior Grace Gilbert took the mound for the Islanders, allowing six runs on four hits in 1.1 innings of action. Junior Beatriz Lara relieved Gilbert in the second inning. She threw for one inning, allowing five runs on five hits. 

WKU senior Jordan Ridge and junior Taylor Sanders both went 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Ridge hit a double and scored two runs while Sanders scored three runs. 

Texas A&M Corpus Christi junior Pal Egan went 2-for-3 with doubles, scoring the only run for the Islanders.    

WKU started much better than in its previous performance, scoring a run without recording a hit. Sanders reached on a fielder’s choice before scoring on an error by junior Ashleigh Sgambelluri. An error by Brylee Hage in the bottom of the first allowed Egan to score to tie the game 1-1. 

The Hilltopper bats heated up in the top of the second. WKU loaded the bases before Ridge scored two runs on a single. Sanders followed her with an RBI single of her own before fifth-year senior Maddie Bowlds scored two more runs on a double. Senior Taylor Davis finished the inning with a two-run RBI single to put the Hilltoppers up 8-1. 

WKU didn’t look back after that second inning, recording back-to-back hits before Sanders batted in both runners. She later scored on a sacrifice fly from Hage to put WKU up 11-1 in the top of the third. The Islanders were able to put runners on first and third base, but a Nunn strikeout left them stranded. 

WKU sophomore Kennedy Foote got in on the action in the top of the fourth inning, knocking in two runs to put WKU up 13-1. Nunn finished her great day with a three up and three down to end the fourth inning.  

Houchens came in relief to close out the final inning. She forced the Islanders to go three up and three down to end the game on a run-rule victory, the first of the season for WKU. 

Sports Editor Wyatt Sparkman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @wyattsparkman3.