Wingate, N.C. - The No. 7 Lenoir-Rhyne Softball Team (46-7) survived the second day of the 2010 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament by splitting its two games Friday.? L-R, the top seed, fell to Mars Hill by a 6-5 score before rallying to defeat Lincoln Memorial, 5-3, and?will now play fifth-seeded Wingate (35-14) on Saturday at 11:00 a.m.
Mars Hill 6, Lenoir-Rhyne 5
The Lions rallied from a two-run deficit to snap the Bears' eight-game winning streak and advance in the winner's bracket of the tournament.? Mars Hill will now face No. 22 and second-seeded Carson-Newman (35-8) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Solo home runs by senior outfielder Brittany Cherry (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) and junior shortstop Kat Rivers (Royston, Ga.) staked L-R to a 2-0 lead after one inning of play.? Rivers' home run tied the South Atlantic Conference single-season record with 18 with teammate Ashley Duckworth (Conover, N.C.).
Mars Hill, the fourth seed, tied the contest at two in the third on an RBI triple by Ashley Angell (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and a sacrifice fly by Ashley Seawell (Asheboro, N.C.).
The Lions then added four runs in the top of the fifth inning thanks to a pair of two-run doubles by Seawell and Anna James (Bellevue, Wash.) for a 6-2 advantage.
L-R cut the margin to one at 6-5 with three runs in its half of the fifth on a bases-clearing double by sophomore first baseman Brittany Davidson (Fort Defiance, Va.).
However, Mars Hill's Taylor Morris (Weddington, N.C.)?kept L-R at bay by pitching the final two and one-third innings and holding the Bears scoreless in picking up her third save of the season.?
The Lions' Tara West (Urbana, Ohio) improved to 14-7 with the win while L-R freshman Alex Smith (Cocoa, Fla.) was tagged with the loss.
Seawell finished with three runs batted in to lead the Lions, who improved to 28-13 on the year.
Davidson drove in three runs for Lenoir-Rhyne, who was limited to just three hits for the contest.
Box Score
Lenoir-Rhyne 5, Lincoln Memorial 3
Trailing 3-0, the Bears rallied with five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to remain alive in the tournament.
In the fifth frame, L-R took advantage of three Lincoln Memorial errors and capped the inning off with a game-winning, three-run home run by sophomore catcher Sarah Atkins (Newport News, Va.).? The round-tripper was Atkins' ninth of the year.
Seventh-seeded Lincoln Memorial opened the scoring on a solo home run by Bridget Eicher (Hicksville, Ohio) in the first inning before RBI singles by Ashley Legge (St. Paris, Ohio) and Jackie Adams (Columbus, Ohio) in the second and third innings, respectively, gave the Lady Railsplitters a 3-0 advantage.
Smith (20-4) was credited with the win after allowing just one run over the final four and two-thirds innings of play while Lincoln Memorial's Meghan LaFevor (Columbia, Tenn.) fell to 17-13 after suffering the setback.
The Lady Railsplitters are now 28-23 on the year.
Box Score
