Hickory, N.C. - The No. 10 Lenoir-Rhyne University Softball Team (28-7, 7-1) took over first place in the South Atlantic Conference standings with a doubleheader sweep of Tusculum College (26-11, 7-3), 7-2 and 6-1, Sunday afternoon at Bears Field.
Junior Dawon Millwood (Hixson, Tenn.) won both games while freshman outfielder Jody Mizelle (Colerain, N.C.) hit a home run in each contest to lead the Bears to the sweep.
Game One - Lenoir-Rhyne 7, Tusculum 2
Junior catcher Sarah Atkins (Newport News, Va.) hit a three-run home run and finished with four runs batted in for L-R in the victory.
Mizelle led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run and the Bears led 3-0 after two innings of play before the Pioneers cut the margin to 3-2 on a two-run home run from Savannah Ewing (Rogersville, Tenn.) in the top of the third.
Atkins drove in a run with a single in the bottom of the third and rounded out the scoring with a three-run home run in Lenoir-Rhyne's half of the fifth.
L-R senior shortstop Kat Rivers (Royston, Ga.) added two hits and two runs scored while Ewing finished with three hits and two RBI for Tusculum despite the loss.
Tusculum's Erin Searcy (Coolidge, Ga.) suffered the setback on the mound and fell to 12-8 on the year.
Box Score
Game Two - Lenoir-Rhyne 6, Tusculum 1
Mizelle broke a one-all tie with the game-winning, two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth inning for the Bears.? Mizelle now has a team-leading 15 home runs on the year.
L-R increased its advantage to 5-1 on run-scoring singles by senior outfielder Brandi Haithcock (Snow Camp, N.C.) and junior outfielder Tameron Sealey (Mount Holly, N.C.) in the fifth inning.
Rivers added a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning, her first home run of the season, to finish off the scoring and Millwood (15-3) limited Tusculum to just one hit while striking out four batters in five innings pitched.
Rivers and Mizelle each finished with two hits while Paige Sneed (Lawrenceville, Ga.) drove in Tusculum's lone run with an RBI single in the second inning.
The Pioneers' Elizabeth Johnson (Greenville, Wis.) (13-3) was tagged with the defeat.
Box Score
Lenoir-Rhyne travels to Winston-Salem, N.C., to face Winston-Salem State on Tuesday for a doubleheader beginning at 3:00 p.m.? Tusculum plays Carson-Newman in a league doubleheader on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m., as well.
