BATON ROUGE, La. – Off to the best start in program history, the Central Arkansas softball team moved to 6-0 on the year after a pair of wins on Friday. After starting the morning with a 2-0 win over the Ohio Bobcats, the Bears added a second 2-0 win on the day against Utah, kicking off the LSU Tiger Classic with back-to-back shutouts. The 6-0 start marks the best opening to a season in program history, leapfrogging the 4-0 start from 2004.
 
GAME 1: UCA – 2, Ohio – 0
After shutting down the first three batters for the Bobcats on a double-play, the Bears got right to work. Leading off, Jenna Wildeman got on with a first-pitch single, advancing to second on a throwing error. A couple of batters later, Madi Young drove in Wildeman for the first run of the tournament.
 
Despite several errors by the Bobcats, the Bears were unable to find another run until the fourth inning. Loading the bases on a couple of walks and a hit by pitch, the Bears were threatening to break it open with just one out. Taking advantage of a wild pitch, McKayla Betts, who had registered her first-career stolen base to reach second and was moved to third later in the inning, scampered home for the second run of the day.
 
From there, Jordan Johnson and the defense allowed just one runner to reach second base, controlling the Bobcats from the outset for her third win of the season. With the shutout, Johnson moved to second all-time at UCA with her 15^th scoreless win.
 
GAME 2: UCA – 2, Utah – 0
The second game of the day, against Pac 12 member Utah, started very slowly for both sides, albeit in different manners. Central Arkansas started three up, three down for a very quick top half of the frame. The Utes, however, came to bat and loaded the bases with one out, piecing together a single and two walks. The next at bat ended the inning, though, as the next batter lined into a double-play at second base, allowing the Bears to escape unscathed.
 
Central Arkansas would stay hitless through the fifth inning, struggling to amount to any sort of offense. But the difficulty at the plate was met with an aggressive, intentional defense, as Kayla Beaver and the eight other fielders pieced together a defensive gem, holding the Utes to just two hits through five innings, hoping that each time back at bat would be the inning that the offense finally broke through.
 
And the sixth would prove to be the one for the Bears, with Kylie Griffin notching the first hit of the day on a first-pitch single. Jenna Wildeman followed it up with a single of her own, and the pair were moved into scoring position by well-placed sacrifice bunt by Tremere Harris. Putting pressure on the Utes defense, Madi Young smacked a single that scored both Griffin and Wildeman, proving to be all the offense necessary for the win.
 
With the lead in hand, Beaver and the defense mowed down the final six batters, eliminating any threat to the two-run advantage through the final out. It marked Beaver's second shutout of the year, keeping her ERA at 0.00
 
The Bears will play two more games on Saturday, with another against Ohio coming before the first of two games against No. 18 LSU.