Albany, Georgia-Edward Waters was able to hold off a stiff challenge from West Division #2 seed and defending conference champion Tuskegee, 8-4 in a winner's bracket matchup at the 2023 Cricket SIAC Softball Championship at the Gordon Sports Complex Tuesday evening.

Edward Waters (41-7, 19-3 SIAC) fell behind early in the bottom half of the first inning when Tuskegee (23-18, 15-4 SIAC) plated the first run on an RBI sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead. After a scoreless second inning, the Lady Tigers got on the board in a big way thanks to Brooke Rice's solo homer over the right field wall that knotted the score up at 1-1. EWU was able to take their first lead of the contest in the top of the fourth inning on Kylah Gardner's RBI single and Gardner later coming around to score on a Golden Tigers wild pitch, giving the Purple & Orange a 3-1 lead.  The Lady Tigers added a single run in the top of the fifth on an RBI fielder's choice from Jamiah Holmes to make it a 4-1 EWU lead.

EWU seemingly put the contest away in the top half of the sixth with two more runs. Gardner stole third base and on a Tuskegee error, was able to come around to score. Tiara Peters connected on an RBI infield single that gave EWU a 6-1 lead. Tuskegee made things interesting in the bottom half of the sixth scoring three runs to cut the Edward Waters lead to two at 6-4. The Lady Tigers were able to add two critical insurance runs in the top of the seventh on a Gardner RBI single to right field and Caitlynne Lamug scoring on a wild pitch that doubled up the EWU lead to four. SIAC Second Team pitcher Jodasea Peterson, who was brought in to relieve starter Alyssa Charter-Smith in the bottom of the sixth inning, was able to engineer the final three outs of the contest to seal the Edward Waters victory and advance them further in the winner's bracket.

Gardner continued her hot hitting from the first contest of the day against Lane, wrapping up the Tuskegee contest going 2-for-3 with two RBI's and two runs scored. Katie Goodin, Caitlynne Lamug, Tiara Peters, Brooke Rice, and Jamiah Holmes each recorded hits for Edward Waters in the contest as well.

In the circle, Alyssa Charter-Smith took the victory, going 5.2 innings, allowing seven hits, four earned runs, two walks, and struck out five. Jodasea Peterson earned a save going 1.1 innings and allowing just three hits.

It will be a matchup of this year's two division winners in the next round of the Championship as East Division Champion Edward Waters will battle West Division Champion Spring Hill in a winner's bracket matchup on Wednesday afternoon at 1:30pm. The winner of the contest will advance to Thursday afternoon's championship game, while the loser will have to stave off elimination later on Wednesday evening.

Follow The Tigers
For complete coverage of Edward Waters University Athletics, follow the Tigers on social media @EWU_Athletics (Twitter), /EWUTigers (Facebook) and @EWU_Athletics (Instagram) or visit the official home of Edward Waters Athletics at EWUTigerPride.com