CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Lady Railsplitters (18-23, 6-8 SAC) split a South Atlantic Conference softball doubleheader at Queens on Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Queens got the better of Lincoln Memorial in game one, using a high-powered offensive attack to capture an 11-3 win in five innings. The Lady Railsplitters bounced back in game two, though, using three home runs to pick up a 6-3 win and salvage the split.
 
Weather permitting, Lincoln Memorial will hosts the Carson-Newman Eagles for a SAC twinbill at Dorothy Neely Field on Tuesday, April 12 beginning at 2 p.m.
 
Game One: Queens 11, Lincoln Memorial 3 (5 innings)
 
The Royals belted four home runs and scored in four of their five plate appearances, including a five-run third inning, to run rule the Lady Railsplitters in Saturday's matinee. Lincoln Memorial also committed a season-high five errors to help Queens' cause by handing out three unearned runs.
 
Jacie Pittman (Travelers Rest, S.C.) went 1 for 3 with a double, while Meredith Johnson (Kenly, N.C.), Brianna Taylor (Ooltewah, Tenn.) and Lindsay Cecil (Winston-Salem, N.C.) each posted a hit and an RBI apiece for the Lady Railsplitters, who finished with just four hits in the contest.
 
Taylor turned in her shakiest outing of the season in the start for the Lady Railsplitters, allowing a season-high 13 hits and seven earned runs over just four innings of work to fall to 10-10 overall. Kenzie Dixon (Church Hill, N.C.) allowed three hits and an earned run in relief of Taylor.
 
Sydney Ditto and Hanna Hasker racked up three hits apiece for the Royals, who racked up 16 hits with six extra-base knocks in the contest. Taylor Rosenbalm, Samantha Martinez and Ashton Whitaker tallied two hits apiece.
 
Queens scored a run in the first and second innings to kick-start its wire-to-wire victory. Whitaker singled in the Royals' first run of the game in the first frame, which was aided by an error in center field. Jasmyn Lindsay then led off the bottom of the second with a solo shot to make it 2-0 in favor of the Royals.
 
The Lady Railsplitters cut Queens' lead in half in the top of the third, as Ashlea Hunter (Woodruff, S.C.) reached on an error before scoring on a two-out single from Cecil.
 
But the Royals answered in the bottom of that inning with a five-run outburst. Hasker drove in the first run of the inning with a double, while Abby Lathan connected on a three-run home run in the next at-bat. Kayla Hall followed that up with a solo homer to extend the Royals' lead to 7-1.
 
The Lady Railsplitters trimmed the deficit to 7-3 over the next two innings, as Taylor singled in a run in the top of the fourth and Johnson scored another with a sacrifice fly out in the fifth, but Queens ended the game early with a four-run rally in the home half of the fifth.
 
Rosenbalm hit a lead-off home run to set the tone for the inning, while the Lady Railsplitters allowed the final two runs to score on errors.
 
Lyndey McCurry picked up the win for the Royals after allowing just four hits and two earned runs over 4 1/3 innings of work. Evie Scott closed the door on the Lady Railsplitters by recording the final two outs in the fifth.
 
Game Two: Lincoln Memorial 6, Queens 3
 
Samantha Smith (Knoxville, Tenn.) homered for the third time in her last two appearances while also pitching a complete game for the Lady Railsplitters, allowing just two earned runs on nine hits with five strikeouts in seven innings of work to improve to 7-8 overall.
 
Smith was one of three LMU players to hit a home run in the game along with Johnson, who went 1 for 2 with two RBI, and Allie Jones (Ooltewah, Tenn.), who was a perfect 3 for 3 at the dish with an RBI. Smith finished 2 for 4 in the game as did Cecil.
 
Ditto and McCurry led the Queens attack with two hits apiece, as the Royals produced nine hits as a team, but stranded eight runners on base.
 
The Lady Railsplitters raced out to a 4-0 lead before Queens tallied its first run of the game.
 
Cecil singled in the top of the first and later scored on a two-out knock from Jones. In the second inning, Hunter led off with a single before scoring on a sacrifice fly out by Jennifer Moose (Statesville, N.C.).
 
Johnson increased the Lady Railsplitters' lead to 4-0 in the top of the third with a two-run home run to straightaway center field, notching her first home run since March 11 and second of the season.
 
The Royals got a run back in the bottom of the third, when Rosenbalm reached on a fielder's choice and later scored on a throwing error. But the Lady Railsplitters erased that in the visitor's half of the fourth on a solo home run by Smith, who recorded the third home run of her career and third in her last two games.
 
Queens stranded two runners on base in the fourth, but cut the Lady Railsplitters' lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth on a two-run single by Ditto.
 
The Lady Railsplitters picked up a much-needed insurance run in the top of the seventh, though, as Jones led off with a solo home run, her fourth of the season.
 
Queens brought the potential tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh after Ditto and Lindsay singled with one out, but Whitaker ground into a double play to end the game.
 
Catelyn Presley suffered the loss for the Royals, falling to 5-8 after giving up four hits and one earned run in 2 1/3 innings.