HARTSVILLE, S.C. -- The Lady Railsplitters staved off elimination with a 3-1 win over the Anderson Trojans on the second day of the 2016 South Atlantic Conference Softball Championship. However, when faced with another elimination game, Lincoln Memorial was unable to extend its season another day, as the Queens Royals walked off with a 3-2 win on Friday evening at Byerly Field in Hartsville, South Carolina.
 
With the loss, the Lady Railsplitters draw the 2016 season to a close with a 24-28 overall record, while Queens advances to day three of the SAC Championship to face the winner of Wingate and Carson-Newman at noon.
 
 Game One: Lincoln Memorial 3, Anderson 1
 
Sophomore right-hander Brianna Taylor (Ooltewah, Tenn.) tossed a complete-game three-hitter to help the Lady Railsplitters avoid elimination and return the favor from last year's season-ending loss to the Trojans.  
 
Taylor allowed just one unearned run, struck out three and walked two in her 14th complete game of the season, improving to 12-12 with just her second victory in the month of April.
 
The Lady Railsplitters' offense held up its end of the bargain in support of Taylor's stellar start, scattering 10 hits in the contest. Jennifer Moose (Statesville, N.C.) went 2 for 3 and drove in both the game-tying and game-winning runs, while BriAnna Schrimpf (Chandler, Ariz.) and Ashlea Hunter (Woodruff, S.C.) added two hits apiece. Hunter scored two of Lincoln Memorial's three runs.
 
Taylor's outing was relatively stress-free, but she had to wiggle out of a tight spot in the top of the third inning, when Michaela Smith walked and Carli Hurtado and Cailah Niles singled in back-to-back at-bats to load the bases with two outs. Anderson scored its lone run of the contest shortly after that when a failed pickoff attempt brought Smith in, but Taylor stopped it from going any further than that by forcing Molly Child into an infield popout.
 
The Lady Railsplitters answered right back in the home half of the third inning, as singles from Schrimpf and Hunter sparked a run-scoring rally. After a fielder's choice moved the runners up a base, Moose tied the game with a single to left field.
 
Lincoln Memorial stranded two runners on in the bottom of the fourth, but took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth frame. Hunter and Lindsay Cecil (Winston-Salem, N.C.) singled to put the pieces in place, while Moose put the Lady Railsplitters in front with an RBI single down the left-field line. Meredith Johnson (Kenly, N.C.) provided an insurance run two batters later, when she drove in a run with a groundout to the Anderson shortstop.
 
That two-run cushion was more than enough for Taylor, who worked around a two-out hit-by-pitch in the sixth before wrapping up her complete game with a tidy 1-2-3 seventh frame.
 
Anderson produced just three hits in the contest, with Hurtado, Niles and Kasey Grant recording a single apiece.
 
Augie Pena (12-6) was saddled with the loss after allowing nine hits and three earned runs with five strikeouts over five innings of work.
 
The win provided a bit of revenge for the Lady Railsplitters, whose 2015 season was ended with a 3-2 loss at the hands of Anderson on the third day of the SAC tournament.
 
Game Two: Queens 3, Lincoln Memorial 2
 
After five innings of scoreless softball, the Lady Railsplitters and Royals went back and forth in a wild finish that ultimately saw Queens capture a walk-off win in the bottom of the seventh.
 
Senior Samantha Smith (Knoxville, Tenn.) was outstanding in the final start of her illustrious career in the Blue and Gray, allowing just six hits and two runs with four strikeouts in six innings of work. Taylor was saddled with the loss after allowing a pair of hits and an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh.
 
The Lady Railsplitters produced eight hits in the game, with Kristen McAndrew (Belmont, N.C.) and Allie Jones (Ooltewah, Tenn.) combining for five. McAndrew went 3 for 4 with three singles, while Jones finished 2 for 4, an effort that included a clutch, game-tying home run in the top of the seventh.
 
Lincoln Memorial produced one of its best scoring chances in the top of the first, as Cecil and Johnson walked and McAndrew singled to load the bases with two outs. However, Becca Burchette (Gas City, Ind.) flew out to left field to keep the game scoreless.
 
The Royals also used a single and two walks to load the bases with two outs in the bottom half of the fifth, but Smith wiggled out of that jam by forcing Taylor Cheek to ground back to her.
 
After a rather eventful first inning, the game settled into a pitcher's duel with Smith and Queens' starter Lydney McCurry trading zeros over the next four frames.
 
Smith allowed just two hits through the first five innings, but the Royals finally got something going against the senior right-hander in the bottom of the sixth, as Sydney Ditto and Cheek singled in back-to-back at-bats to put a pair of runners on. Pitch hitter Ashton Whitaker then broke the scoreless stalemate with an RBI single to right field, while Kayla Hall made it 2-0 in favor of the Royals with a sacrifice fly out in the next at-bat.
 
With their season on the line, the Lady Railsplitters came to bat in the top of the seventh inning. After a groundout by Cecil, Queens opened the door by putting Moose on via a muffed throw from the Royals' first baseman. Jones then delivered the biggest hit of the season, slamming a no-doubt, two-run home run to straightaway centerfield to tie the game at 2-2.
 
With the momentum squarely in LMU's favor, the Lady Railsplitters had a chance to take the lead that inning, as Johnson and McAndrew singled in the next two at-bats. After a groundout, the Lady Railsplitters had the potential winning run sitting at third base, but a strikeout ended the inning and kept the game knotted at 2-2.
 
Queens quickly produced the winning run in the home half of the seventh inning, though, as Brooke Sanford led off with a single and Samantha Martinez reached via an error to give the Royals three chances to end the game. Queens needed just one, though, as McCurry singled back up the middle to drive in Sanford and end the Lady Railsplitters' season.
 
In addition to plating the winning run, McCurry was the Royals' savior on the mound, allowing just seven hits and one earned run with three strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings of work.