Columbia, Mo. – This afternoon the Columbia College softball team was back in action when they hosted Lindenwood University-Belleville (Ill.) for a doubleheader in the AMC Game of the Week. The Cougars were able to defeat the Lynx in both games of the doubleheader taking the first game by a final score of 4-3 and then winning the second game by a final score of 5-2. With the sweep, Columbia College improves to 19-2 on the season and 8-0 in conference play.

Prior to the game, the NAIA national office announced the first regular season 2017 NAIA Softball Top 25 Poll. The Cougars, who were not ranked in the preseason poll, are now the third ranked team in the NAIA after receiving 473 total points. This marks the highest ranking for the Cougars softball team since the 1991 season.

In their first game against the Lynx, the Cougars got off to a slow start and allowed Lindenwood-Belleville to score an early run in the top of the first and take a 1-0 lead in the ballgame. They were able to extend their lead to 2-0 in the top of the third inning but the Cougars bounced back quickly and were able to get their first run on the board in the bottom half of the inning to cut the Lynx lead in half. Lindenwood-Belleville added one last run in the top of the fourth but one run from the Cougars in the fifth cut the Lynx lead to one with just two innings left to play. The score remained 3-2 in favor of Lindenwood-Belleville until the bottom of the seventh when the Cougars rallied for two runs including a walk off base hit from Karli Leeper to give Columbia their fifth conference win of the season. Paxton Welch was the starting pitcher for the Cougars picking up her eighth win of the season after allowing 10 hits and three earned runs in seven innings of work. Offensively, Columbia College was led by the reigning AMC and NAIA Player of the Week, Allyson Metz, who went 1-2 with two RBI's.

The Cougars were able to carry over their momentum from the first game into the second contest and scored a quick run in the bottom of the first to take an early 1-0 lead in the ballgame. However, the Lynx responded with two runs of their own in the top of the second and Lindenwood-Belleville held a 2-1 lead through two innings of play. Neither side was able to get anything going offensively over the next few innings but a four run rally in the bottom of the fifth from the Cougars propelled them to their 15^th straight win. Lauren McCroskie was the starter for Columbia College in this one picking up her 10^th win of the season after allowing just two earned runs and six hits through seven innings of play. In addition to McCroskie, Julianna Waldner went 3-3 with an RBI and Theresa DeCosty went 3-4 with three runs scored to round out the top performers for Columbia.

The Cougars are back in action on Wednesday, March 22^nd when they host the Stephens (Mo.) College Stars in an AMC doubleheader. The first game of the doubleheader is set to start at 2 p.m. with the second game to immediately follow.