Southern Miss Splits Opening Day of Jacksonville Spring Break Challenge

Friday, March 6

Jacksonville, Fla. / UNF Softball Complex

2 p.m. CT (3 p.m. ET)

Southern Miss

15-8

Brown

1-5

Brown

Southern Miss.

Southern Miss Splits Opening Day of Jacksonville Spring Break Challenge

3/6/2026 11:02:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score vs. Brown Box Score vs. North Florida

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Southern Miss (15-9, 0-0 Sun Belt) used a complete game shutout from Madilyn Graham to outlast Brown, 1-0, to open its stay in at the Jacksonville Spring Break Classic before ending the night with 3-2 loss to North Florida.

Southern Miss 1, Brown 0
The Golden Eagles posted their eight-straight victory in a 1-0 defeat of Brown in Southern Miss' first game of the tournament. Madison Johnson (Haymarket, Va.) drove in Julia Glasgow (Canton, Miss.) on a go-ahead RBI single to break the scoreless tie over the Bears before Madilyn Graham (Stringer, Miss.) finished off her third complete game shutout of the young season. Graham improved to 5-1 on the 2026 campaign and lowered her ERA to 1.42 in 29 1/3 innings of work.Madilyn

Brown led off the game with a single and got two of their sixth knocks on the day in the first inning alone. Graham settled in and retired the next four batters while the Golden Eagle offense began to click, getting Hannah Christian (Hoover, Ala.) to third base after swiping her seventh bag of the year in the opening frame.

The two teams combined for one hit in the second before Brown put Graham in another jam in the top of the third, putting the first two batters of the inning on base and then two in scoring position after a wild pitch. Graham rallied and used a foul out and lineout to shortstop Nealy McManus (Millport, Ala.) to escape and leave the two Bear runners stranded.

McManus led off the third with a walk and made it to third after an Abbi Troquille (Tioga, La.) double. McManus made for home but was out at the plate on a Bear fielder's choice to keep the game scoreless heading to the fourth.

Brown got its first and only extra base hit of the game in the top of the fourth but back-to-back outs to left field ended their chance for a run. Graham then tallied an out against 10 of her next 11 batters faced, allowing just one runner on a fielding error in the sixth inning.

Glasgow reached base in the sixth after getting hit by a pitch to start a two-out Golden Eagle rally. She stole second base and made her way to third after an over throw by the Bears' catcher and made her way home for the game's first run thanks to Johnson's single to second base.

The Bears got a final runner on in the seventh inning, but Graham slammed the door with a strikeout to end the game and seal Southern Miss' victory. Brown's Macy Borowski suffered the loss to fall to 1-2 on the season, pitching a full six innings with five hits, three walks, five strikeouts and no earned runs. Graham struck out two and gave up six hits en route to her fifth overall win and fourth in-a-row.

Additionally, Southern Miss pushed its winning streak to eight straight games since Feb. 25, the best winning streak under head coach Natalie Poole and longest since the Golden Eagles won 11 consecutive games from March 31 to April 17 in the 2019 season.

North Florida 3, Southern Miss 2
Southern Miss' eight-game mark ran into North Florida's seven-game unbeaten streak with the Ospreys also boasting an 18-2 mark at their home field. UNF's Grace Shaw's go-ahead some run to left field in the sixth inning proved to be the deciding factor in the Osprey's 3-2 victory, snapping Southern Miss' streak at eight straight victories.

North Florida (21-5, 0-0 Atlantic Sun) opened their first chance at the plate with a single, sacrifice bunt and fly out to right field to place their leadoff hitter at third base. The Osprey runner came home on a wild pitch to put UNF on the board early.

Southern Miss, though, responded quickly, tying the game in the next half inning thanks to McManus' quick thinking. The shortstop doubled to left field and then made her way to third base on the first of two errors before rounding third to score on the Osprey's second error of the frame.

The Golden Eagles pushed across another run just one inning later as Kinsley Gordon-Sivley (Myrtle, Miss.) brought Carrie Green (Loganville, Ga.) home on a double to left center field to give Southern Miss a 2-1 lead. The hit was Gordon-Sively's 22nd of the year and third extra-base hit, giving her 11 RBI on the 2026 campaign.

UNF tied things up in the last of the third with an RBI knock to right field, setting the score at 2-2 throug three complete innings. Both squads faced the minimum in the fourth and then exchanged hits in the fifth to keep the margin knotted up heading into the sixth.

Southern Miss went down in order in the sixth before sitting the Ospreys first two batters down in order. UNF's Grace Shaw gave the Ospreys the lead on a two-out, go-ahead home run to left field, giving the home team a 3-2 lead.

McManus led off Southern Miss' final half inning with a single to left and Glasgow put two runners in scoring position with a double to left center. The Ospreys made a change on the mound with two on and no outs. UNF's reliever retired the first batter on a groundout to the circle before the Osprey defense tagged McManus out on her way home to get out number 2. UNF escaped inning on a groundout to third to clinch the game and snap Southern Miss' win streak.

UNF starting pitcher Cameron Ponich got the win on six-plus innings of work to improve to 10-1 on the year while Macia Hunolt recorded all three outs of the seventh to earn her first save of 2026. Ponich allowed just one earned run on seven hits with two strikeouts on 117 pitches.

Southern Miss right hander Kayla Giardina (Kenner, La.) suffered the loss to fall to 6-3 on the year. She worked all six innings in the circle with three runs, all earned, on six hits against four strikeouts on just 81 pitches.

Up Next
Southern Miss heads across town to the campus of Jacksonville University for the second day of the Jacksonville Spring Break Challenge. The Golden Eagles will face the home-standing Jacksonville Dolphins (13-10, 0-0 Atlantic Sun) before facing Brown (1-6, 0-0 Ivy League) for a second time this weekend. First pitch for the second meeting against Brown is set to begin at Noon CT (1 p.m. ET) while first pitch is tentatively scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT (3:30 p.m. ET) against Jacksonville.

– #LockedIn | #SMTTT –