MONTGOMERY, Ala. (February 9, 2025) – The North Alabama softball team finished the 2025 Stinger Classic unbeaten on Sunday, improving to a 5-0 record with a lopsided 12-0 win in five innings over Alabama State in the tournament finale in Montgomery, Ala.
The Lions have opened with a five-game win streak in two of the last three seasons. This is also the fourth time in seven Division seasons that UNA has started with a 5-0 record. However, UNA will hunt its first 6-0 start since 2016, when the Lions started 10-0 and eventually won the NCAA Division II National Championship.
The Stinger Classic finale lacked all the dramatics of last night's extra inning thriller, as UNA scored a run in each of the first three innings and busted the game open with an eight-run fourth. The Lions added another insurance run in the fifth while earning a shutout on the other side of the board thanks to junior transfer Katie Simon and her efforts in the circle.
Simon, a transfer from Wallace State and Athens native, earned her first win as a Lion with 5.0 innings pitched and just one hit and one walk allowed. She struck out seven batters to tie her twin sister, Emily Simon, for the single-game high this season.
Sophomore shortstop Briley Dover continued her stellar weekend with another flawless game, batting 3-for-3 with two home runs, three runs and three RBIs. She was also hit by a pitch to reach in all four plate appearances. She is now 10-for-18 this season with a .556 batting average.
Dover, who moved from third base to shortstop this season, was part of a two-player power tandem on Sunday with her third base replacement — sophomore Bayleigh Rouse. Rouse and Dover both hit a pair of homers and combined for six runs and six RBIs.
The first three runs of the game came on separate solo shots from Dover and Rouse, including two from Dover in the first and third innings. Rouse had a solo shot in the second and a two-run shot in the fourth.
Junior outfielder Jorja Roberson is the only Lion to hit safely in all five games this weekend with one hit in each game. She was instrumental in the eight-run inning with a two-RBI triple. She came home on Rouse's second homer of the day. Rouse also started the scoring in the fourth inning with the bases loaded, as Dover was hit by a pitch to move her in.
Senior Hailey Jones was the only other Lion to record a hit, and she scored two runs.
In the circle, Simon allowed a first inning single and second inning walk, but nothing else. She ended the game with 11 straight retired and at least one strikeout in every inning. She had two strikeouts in the second inning and final inning.
Pitchers of Record
W – Katie Simon (1-0)
L – Kaityln Hill (0-2)
S – None
COMING UP NEXT
The Lions will play five games at the Chattanooga Challenge next weekend, beginning Friday at 12:30 p.m. against Lindenwood and 3 p.m. against host school Chattanooga. UNA won three of five at this tournament last season with wins over Western Kentucky, Jacksonville State and Murray State.
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