Through five innings of both teams’ respective season openers, Southside and Van Buren were tied at 8-8.

In the final two innings, the Mavericks’ offense proved to be too much for the Lady Pointers.

Southside broke the deadlock with nine runs in the top of the sixth; then added three more in the seventh as the Mavericks went on to a 20-9 win in non-conference softball action Monday at Van Buren.

Two vital cogs for the Mavericks’ offense, Hannah Hogue and Madi Conklin, are both juniors and returning starters. They each had an immediate impact in Monday’s win.

Hogue, the Mavs’ lead-off batter, went 5-for-5 with two doubles, two RBIs and four runs scored, while Conklin — hitting third — was 3-for-3 and drove in nine runs, including a grand slam home run as part of the nine-run sixth.

“We’ve been working a lot on getting runners in scoring position and being able to produce when the time comes, and we had good pitch selection, we got people on base and we were able to produce runs off of that,” Conklin said.

The Mavs (1-0) also got a boost with the return of senior Mackenzie Farrar, who missed most of last season with an injury. Farrar, batting second, was 3-for-4 and had two RBIs.

But Hogue added there are also a bevy of younger players to give the offense a whole new dimension.

“I think we have a lot of new players, we’re young and we’ve got a lot of speed,” Hogue said. “We’re getting around the bases pretty well and then we’ve got power in the middle.”

Hogue, Farrar and Conklin each had hits to lead off the game and all scored to give Southside a quick 3-0 lead. Van Buren responded with four runs in the third to go in front.

Then, Southside put up five runs in the top of the fourth; only to have the Lady Pointers answer with four more runs in their half of the inning to tie it at 8-all.

But in the top of the sixth, the Mavs took command.

Conklin was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and eventually reached third. With one out, Hana Dingman’s single brought Conklin home and Southside stayed in front from there.

The Mavs were far from being done.

Hogue hit a two-run double to right center, which was her fifth hit on the day, to extend the lead to four, 12-8. Two batters later, Conklin came up with the bases loaded.


She drove a pitch which cleared the wall in left center, breaking the game open as Southside went up 16-8. It was Conklin’s first career grand slam.

“At first, I was surprised because (Van Buren) wasn’t throwing a lot of strikes and as soon as I saw a pitch I could hit, I was like, I had to hit it,” Conklin said. “I didn’t really realize it was actually going over until I rounded first and I got really excited because we really, really needed that.”

Conklin then capped the scoring in the seventh as she came up with the bases loaded again. This time, she doubled down the left-field line to bring in all three runners.

“First game, we’ll have a lot of things that we will learn from, and we’ve got some young kids and I think they did a great job of hanging in there; they kept fighting and Van Buren, give them 100 percent of the credit as far as that goes because they fought back,” Southside coach Cassy Story said. “We would score and they would come back and score again. ... Again, I was proud of the kids; they fought hard and played well.”

Dingman was 3-for-5 and Reese Robinson had two hits and two RBIs as well for the Mavs. Southside pitcher Meliah Hunter recorded nine strikeouts as she tossed a complete-game win.

For Van Buren (0-1), Lexi Trejo went 3-for-5 with a double and triple. She scored twice and drove in three runs.

Richelle Stacy also was 2-for-2 and Leah Wilkins gave Van Buren a 4-3 lead in the third with a two-run double.

Southside will travel to a tournament beginning Thursday in Van Alstyne, Texas. Van Buren is at home again Tuesday to take on Northside.
