TROY – The Alabama State softball team got just what it was seeking in their first game of the day on Saturday in the Troy Chick-Fil-A Invitational: a settled in pitching performance and a jolt from their batting lineup. 
 
Junior Maddie Phelps pitched six innings of one-run ball and fellow junior Carly Evans smacked a pair of two-run home runs as the Lady Hornets blew past Florida A&M 10-1 in a run-ruled shortened six innings of play at the Troy Sportsplex.
 
Phelps (1-0) was workmanlike on the mound by scattering four hits and striking out three. 

Phelps was able to control the game by inducing 11 ground ball outs for her fielders, who shined by playing an errorless game. 
 
Evans hit the first home run of her Lady Hornets' career and the first of the season for the team with a two-run blast to left-center field to give ASU a 4-1 lead in the third inning. 
 
The North Highlands, Calif. native added her second home run of the night on another two-run moon shot to the same part of the field as ASU poured it on with a 10-1 lead in the sixth. 

Phelps stayed on in the bottom half of the inning to close it out. 
 
Evans batted 3-for-4 with five RBI, and two home runs.
 
Valerie Centeno stayed hot at the plate by hitting 2-for-4 with a double, and a RBI out of the leadoff spot and shortstop Laura Aguilar was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. 

Second baseman Jazzmin Romero was 2-for-3 from the nine hole with a run and a RBI.
 
In the fourth, Alexis Johnson got things going with a leadoff double to right-center field. 

Brittney Wilson pinch ran for Johnson and came around to score after advancing on groundouts by Kendall Core and Jenna Mae Thorne, who was credited with the RBI to the push the lead to 5-1. 
 
ASU added five insurance runs in the sixth on a Romero RBI single, a Centeno RBI groundout, and a Diauna Nelson RBI double before Evans' second home run. 
 
In the nightcap, Western Kentucky defeated ASU 16-8 in a return to the Troy Softball Complex.

The first inning lasted 41 minutes and the game did not end until approximately 11 p.m.  
 
ASU got off to a quick start. 

In the first, Centeno and Laura Aguilar singled before Thorne went to the opposite field for a screaming double over the left fielder's head near the 200-foot sign scoring Centeno. 

Evans scorched a ball for a two-run triple, also going opposite, forcing the right fielder to back pedal and could not make the catch.   

Johnson kept the hit fest going blooping a single over the third baseman's head to score Evans and force a pitching change. 
 
Hindi found the gap in right center field to set up runners at second and third for Core. 

She picked up an infield single that was knocked down by the Western Kentucky second baseman who dove to her right, but could not make a play. 

Pinch runner Brittney Wilson came around to score on the play to spot ASU a 5-0 advantage.