Hickory, N.C. - Second-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne (44-8) rallied with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull out a 2-1 win over sixth-seeded Carson-Newman (41-17-1) Sunday afternoon at Bears Field to capture the 2011 NCAA Division II Softball Southeast Regional Tournament.
With the victory, No. 6 L-R advances to the Southeast Super Regional Tournament and will take on second-ranked North Georgia (50-9) on May 20-21.? The tournament is a best two-out-of-three.?
North Georgia beat Flagler, 6-1, in its half of the regional tournament Sunday.? The two squads are meeting in the Super Regionals for the second consecutive season.? The site will be announced by the NCAA.
Trailing 1-0 with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, L-R freshman third baseman Haily Jarman (Wadesboro, N.C.) came through with a two-run double which got past a diving Carson-Newman shortstop to lift the Bears to the win.
Carson-Newman's lone run of the contest came in the top of the third inning when Amber Hewitt (Ringgold, Ga.) connected on an RBI single.
L-R junior pitcher Dawon Millwood (Hixson, Tenn.) improved to 27-4 on the season after being credited with the win.? Millwood scattered three hits while striking out four after seeing her scoreless inning streak snapped at 23.
Sophomore designated player Megan Laxton (Taylorsville, N.C.) finished with a game-high two hits for the Bears, who ran their winning streak to nine games and are now 29-2 in their last 31 contests.
The Eagles' Mary Shealy (Clinton, S.C.) fell to 38-15 on the year after suffering the loss despite allowing two unearned runs.
QUOTES
Carson-Newman Head Coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield?
"Not a usual Carson-Newman-Lenoir-Rhyne softball game and today the Eagles came up a little bit short.? When your errors match your hits, that's pretty much going to be the outcome. That's exactly what happened today. Mary (Shealy) and Bri Shoemake, our battery, did everything in their power to keep it where we were in it. We were excited where they were in the line-up (in the bottom of the seventh inning) and we know they are extremely tough one to nine.? But would of, could of, should of and that's just the way it goes sometimes."?
(On the team committing three errors)
"I can tell you this, last night we started talking about Lenoir-Rhyne and our preparation and reminded them before we took the field this morning that we've got to keep it clean against them, we have got to keep it clean.? You cannot give L-R an inch or they'll take a mile from you."
Lenoir-Rhyne Head Coach Shena Hollar?
"I'm tired, guys. I think it's been a great tournament with close games.? For us, we played two close games Friday and yesterday and then another one today.? We've done the things we needed to win games. Today, it came down to the seventh inning."
(On winning the game in the last inning)?
"We had the momentum early and coming down to the last inning, I didn't know. When we played them in April, we put seven runs on the board like that.? So at any point, we can flip our offense on and score some runs and we did just that in the seventh today."
