North Georgia Softball team huddling during game one of 2025 NCAA DII Softball National Championship. Photo by David Trotter
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – The University of North Georgia Softball team fell to Saginaw Valley State University 7-4 in eight innings in the first game of the 2025 NCAA DII Softball National Championship.
SVS started the game off on the right foot by scoring the first run of the game courtesy of an Olivia Elliott single that scored Aalana Kimble. The Nighthawks would answer right back in the bottom of the first and would take the lead. North Georgia began the first with a Sydnee Reaves single and followed it up with a Natalie Ray double. Carleigh Knowles finished things off with a double down the left field line to bring home both Reaves and Ray. UNG would be up on top 2-1 until the third.
In the top of the third, SVS’s Olivia Ellio doubled to left field. This allowed the base hit by Mya Purdy to bring home pinch runner Emily Schmeltz to tie up the game.
After a three up, three down bottom half of the third, UNG was able to find a little success in the bottom of the next inning. Tagen Levao-Maisonet hit a deep ball into right field that SVS’s Aalana Kimble was unable to field it properly. Levao-Maisonet was able to reach to third off the error.
Marycille Brumby would then be hit by a pitch. Kayla Berry, who subbed in for Brumby to pinch run, would promptly steal second. Journey Roberts hit a sacrifice fly to score Levao-Maisonet. In the next at-bat, Reaves doubled to right center field, bringing in Berry to put another run up on the board. The 4-2 lead would be the Nighthawks biggest and last lead of the game.
The Cardinals would answer right back in the top of the fifth. Nighthawk pitcher Chloe Poss would walk Jenna Morse to open the inning. Then Olivia Elliott singled, advancing Morse to third. Emma Helvie hit a sacrifice fly to pull the Cardinals back within one. Purdy was hit by pitch which allowed Elliott to move up a base. Kate Pnacek flew out into centerfield, but Reaves sailed the throw, allowing Olivia Elliott to score. The game would remain tied at four until the eighth inning.
Angelina Badalament came into pitch for Chloe Poss in the sixth. Badalament made her first appearance in a game since the second Regional game against Lenior Rhyne, where she only faced three batters before getting pulled.
Badalament and the Nighthawks would find themselves in a pickle in the top of the sixth. Badalement would walk Aalana Kimble to open things up. Ella Reifschneider then reached base on a Roberts throwing error and Kimble advanced to third. Reifschneider stole second but Morse flew out. Then, Badalament picked up her first strikeout since the Peach Belt Conference title game and would follow it up with a walk. The Nighthawks were able to survive the sixth thanks to a fielders choice from Rylie Moody. A quick bottom of the sixth and seventh innings followed.
“She was fresh and she had really good looking sessions. She did a great job against them [Saginaw Valley] earlier in the year when we played them… that was really my thought process,” said head coach Brooke O’Hair in putting Badalament.
In the eighth, the Cardinals were able to break through. With one out, Reifschneider singled, Morse was walked then Olivia Elliott singled through left field, bringing Reifschneider home. Morse would be caught between home from third, but North Georgia was unable to make the out and Morse would scamper back to third. SVS would then go on to tack two more runs to defeat North Georgia 7-4 in eight innings. This was the Cardinals’ first victory over the Nighthawks since 2011.
“I didn’t feel like there really was an unraveling point. I just feel like we didn’t execute certain plays. We started that inning [the eighth] and we just couldn’t get out of it. You know, that’s the hard thing about the game of softball. You never know how the ball’s gonna bounce and you have to be ready to bounce back after one mistake. We just had multiple mistakes that inning and they did a great job capitalizing those mistakes.” – Brooke O’Hair, Head Coach after the game
Reaves and Tagen Levao-Maisonet led the way for the Nighthawks in hits with two a piece. Badlament took the loss as she finished the game, pitching just over two innings with four hits, two earned runs, three walks and one strikeout.
“We’ve pretty much made it the hardest on ourselves this whole postseason. Losing and then having fight through the losers bracket and we made it out both times. So I think we’re fully capable of doing the same thing again.” – Sydnee Reaves on going through the losers bracket this season
In order for UNG to stave off elimination from the National Championship, they will have to beat Western Washington University on Friday, May 23 at 11 a.m. This is the first time that these programs have ever faced off.