Sarah Claxon fires perfect game in MSC opening win over UPike

It had not happened since March 21st, 2015 until today. Sarah Claxon faced 21 batters and retired them all in a 7-0 win over UPike in the opening round of the Mid-South Conference Tournament. It marks the first perfect game for Georgetown since Kayla Williams pulled the trick, also against Pikeville over 8 years ago.

Claxon got comfortable quickly against UPike thanks to early run support. The Tigers put 2 on the board in the bottom of the 1st thanks to a RBI groundout from Mallory Myers and a RBI double from Cassie Rannells that scored Claxon.

3 more runs came across in the 2nd after a 2-RBI double from Kaylyn Barnett and a RBI single from Myers. Barnett added a solo homer in the 4th to grow the Tigers lead to 6-0. Claxon helped her own cause in the 6th with a single that scored Ashley Shelton for the 7th and final Tigers run.

Sarah Claxon was dominant on the mound throughout against a UPike offense that tried attacking early in counts. Claxon needed only 67 pitches for the perfect game. Only 3 balls left the infield the entire game. She also recorded 4 strikeouts.

Claxon felt confident in her stuff from the get go. "I realized (my stuff was on) pretty early. I was just trying to spin the ball and keep it on the corners. They attacked early, so I was just trying to make sure the first pitch was good."

While staying locked in, Claxon was not aware of the potential history until she went out for the 7th. "I realized it in the last inning when my coach told me I was going out there to 1-2-3 UPike, and that's when I knew I had my chance right there," Claxon said.

The Tigers advance to the double-elimination round of the tournament and will take on the winner of Cumberland/Tennessee-Southern on Thursday at South Warren High School in Bowling Green. First pitch is set for 5:00PM ET.

Claxon talked after the game about the importance of today's game going forward. "It definitely gives us momentum. We knew coming in to today we wanted to beat Pikeville and we knew we could do it. Doing it this way just gives us that extra push and gives us that confidence going into the rest of the tournament."