The UT Martin Skyhawks softball team finishes strong in a rough five game stretch in the 2025 Paladin Invitational at Greenville, South Carolina, at Pepsi Stadium.
UT Martin came out strong in the 2025 Paladin Invitational after winning their first game 8-0 against South Carolina State. Leading scorers included junior right fielder (RF) Dylan Scott and junior third baseman (3B) Kennedy Brown, who each scored two runs.
The team then fell down a slippery slope losing three straight to Furman (1-2), Evansville (6-9) and Stonehill (1-2). In the three losses, a bright game came from sophomore center fielder Kyla Harley who scored two runs in the loss to Evansville. Junior 3B Jess Willsey showed out for Evansville scoring three runs in the matchup.
As mentioned above though, the Skyhawks finished out the weekend strong winning 8-0 in their second matchup against Stonehill. Leading the way this time around included Harley at three runs scored and freshman second baseman (2B) Ava Scott at two runs scored. They scored in every inning but the fourth, but made up for it by scoring three in the fifth.
On the pitching sides of things, junior Ashtyn Green showed out with zero runs earned on six hits, three strikeouts and zero walks: an impressive outing from the junior who earned OVC pitcher of the week honors.
Looking ahead to the Skyhawks’ schedule, they will host matches against Western Michigan on Feb. 14 at 3:30 pm, DePaul on Feb. 15 at 6 pm and Feb. 16 at 12:30 pm and Murray State on Feb. 16 at 3:30 pm.
Western Michigan is coming off a rough start in the Candrea Classic. They came out strong with an 8-0 win over Michigan State University. Highlights came from seven different players scoring runs. That success was short lived as the team proceeded to lose their remaining games allowing 41 runs to 13 runs of their own.
DePaul stayed right at .500 going 3-3 in the DePaul Dome Tournament. Similar to Western Michigan they started out with a win, though less impressive at 1-0 and then proceeded to lose both games to St. Thomas in a combined score of 8-15. DePaul then bounced back going 2-1 in their next three games to get back to .500.
Murray State also stayed at .500 going 2-2 in the South Alabama Tournament. They swept Northwestern State in both games they played (their first and last of the tournament) but struggled against South Alabama and UAB. They played their first two games close with a 2-1 win against Northwestern State and a 2-3 loss against South Alabama. The other two games were the opposite results with a 1-9 loss against UAB and 10-2 win over Northwestern State.
The Skyhawks will look to bounce back and get above .500 after starting the season 2-3.
