Hickory, N.C. - The No. 10 Lenoir-Rhyne University Softball Team (35-8, 14-2) split a South Atlantic Conference doubleheader with Catawba College (27-17, 10-6) Wednesday afternoon in the home regular season finale at Bears Field. L-R won the first game by a 4-2 score but Catawba took the nightcap, 10-6.
Lenoir-Rhyne, which saw its nine-game winning streak snapped, remain one game ahead of Carson-Newman (35-12-1, 13-3) in the league race.
Game One - Lenoir-Rhyne 4, Catawba 2
The Bears took advantage of four Indian errors to win the first contest of the doubleheader.
A Catawba error led to an L-R run in the bottom of the second inning that opened the scoring before senior outfielder Brandi Haithcock (Snow Camp, N.C.) connected on an RBI double in the fourth frame to push the Bears' advantage to 2-0.
Lenoir-Rhyne led 3-0 when Catawba scored twice in the top of the sixth inning to cut the margin to one thanks to Kayla Myers' (Bryson City, N.C.) solo home run and Khourtni Hester's (Waldorf, Md.) RBI single.
L-R added an insurance run in its half of the sixth on?junior second baseman Carlee Carpenter's (Newton, N.C.) run-scoring double.
Junior Dawon Millwood (Hixson, Tenn.) earned the win after going the distance for the Bears.? Millwood scattered five hits to go along with four strikeouts while Catawba's Emily Huneycutt (Locust, N.C.) suffered the loss.
Box Score
Game Two - Catawba 10, Lenoir-Rhyne 6
The Indians broke a four-all tie with four unearned runs in the seventh inning to salvage the split.
Catawba's Mollie Kovalcin (Latrobe, Pa.) drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the frame that proved to be the game-winning RBI.? The Indians' Amanda Terry (Cordova, N.C.) added a two-run single in the inning.
Myers gave the Indians a 2-1 lead with a two-run home run in the third but L-R sophomore pitcher Megan Laxton (Taylorsville, N.C.) answered with a two-run round-tripper of her own in the bottom of the fourth inning to give the lead back to the Bears at 4-3.
The back-and-fourth contest continued and the Bears forced a six-all tie with two runs in the fifth inning.?
Senior shortstop Kat Rivers (Royston, Ga.) hit a solo home run to lead off the frame while Laxton added an RBI double but Catawba put the game away with its four-run seventh inning.
Laxton paced the Bears offensively with three hits and three RBI and Rivers added three hits as well despite the loss.? Junior catcher Sarah Atkins (Newport News, Va.) also hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning for L-R.
Carly Sabat (Warren, Ohio) and Tara Gibbs (Waynesville, N.C.) each finished with three hits to lead Catawba.
Huneycutt (15-8) earned the win while Millwood (20-4) suffered her first loss in 11 contests against conference opponents this year.
Box Score
Lenoir-Rhyne wraps up the South Atlantic Conference regular season with a doubleheader at Brevard while Catawba returns home to face Lincoln Memorial.? Both doubleheaders take place on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m.
