SALEM, Va. – The Lady Railsplitters (14-7) uncorked nine home runs and combined for 36 runs to finish 2-1 at the Salem Tournament on Saturday.
 
Lincoln Memorial matched the program record with six home runs in game one, when the Lady Railsplitters blasted USciences 19-1 in five innings. LMU scored at least two runs in every inning, including a six-run outburst in the top of the third. Five different players finished with multiple hits in the contest.
 
In game two, West Liberty scored five runs in the bottom of the first and withstood the Lady Railsplitters' late rally to capture a 7-6 win.
 
The Lady Railsplitters concluded the Salem Tournament by scoring three runs in each of the last three innings to handle Shippensburg 10-4.
 
Sophomore outfielder Allie Jones (Ooltewah, Tenn.) had a monster day at the plate, finishing the three-game set 7-for-11 with nine RBI, three home runs, one double and six runs scored. Freshman Ty-Kella Goins (Ramseur, N.C.) also produced a big day by going 4-for-9 with two homers and five RBI. Ashlea Hunter (Woodruff, S.C.) finished 5-for-11 with two doubles, a home run and an RBI.
 
The Lady Railsplitters begin a six-game home stand on Wednesday, March 15 when they host Trevecca for a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m. at Dorothy Neely Field.
 
Game One: Lincoln Memorial 19, USciences 1 (5 innings)
 
The Lady Railsplitters wasted little time against the Devils, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning on Goins' first home run of the day.
 
Lincoln Memorial added another run in the second stanza, as a muffed throw allowed Dakotah Fraley (Walkersville, Md.) and Jones to score. Jones singled to start the rally while Fraley reached via an error. 
 
USciences notched its only run of the game in the bottom of that inning on an RBI single from Gina Pustizzi, but the Lady Railsplitters broke the game wide open in the top of the third by plating six runs.
 
Meredith Johnson (Kenly, N.C.) opened the scoring barrage with an RBI single and later scored on Teddi Collins' (Germantown, Ohio) three-run blast. A fielding error put Hunter on base for Fraley, who connected on a two-run bomb to put the Lady Railsplitters in front 11-1.
 
Jones hit the first of her two home runs in the game in the fourth inning to add three more runs to LMU's lead, while Hunter hammered a solo shot in the very next at-bat.
 
The Lady Railsplitters tacked on four more runs in the top of the fifth on an RBI groundout from Jacie Pittman (Travelers Rest, S.C.) and another three-run homer from Jones, who finished with six RBI in the contest. That is tied for the second-most in program history. The last player to record six RBI in an LMU jersey was Danae Reed in the 2013 South Atlantic Conference Tournament.
 
Freshman right-hander Justice Smith (Rockmart, Ga.) was the beneficiary of all that run support, but she didn't need much. Smith allowed just five hits – four singles – and struck out three over five innings to notch her sixth win of the season.
 
Game Two: West Liberty 7, Lincoln Memorial 6
 
Smith was unable to replicate that performance against the Hilltoppers, who tagged the freshman for three hits and four runs in the first inning alone. Smith was pulled after recording just a single out and ultimately suffered the loss.
 
Brianna Taylor (Ooltewah, Tenn.) tossed five solid innings of relief to give the Lady Railsplitters a chance to rally from an early five-run deficit. She allowed just three hits and two unearned runs with two strikeouts in the no decision.
 
Lincoln Memorial committed four costly errors that led to four unearned runs.
 
Two of those miscues occurred in the bottom of the first and opened the door for West Liberty's five-run frame. Nicole Chris led off with a double while a throwing error put runners on the corners with no outs. After that, the next five West Liberty batters reached safely. Kelsi Johnson, Sydney Bennington and Nicki Mihalik singled in runs, while another scored on LMU's second error. An RBI groundout from Samantha Kilbane completed the scoring for the Hilltoppers.
 
The Lady Railsplitters steadily worked their way back from that deficit. BriAnna Schrimpf (Chandler, Ariz.) drove in a run with a two-out single in the top of the third and added another with a sacrifice fly out in the fifth to make it 5-2.
 
Jones then brought the Lady Railsplitters within one with a two-out blast in the top of the sixth.
 
West Liberty used two more errors to tack on two vital insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. Savannah Sieger and Mihalik sparked the rally with back-to-back one-out singles, while a fielding error in right field loaded the bases. Another fielding error then brought the first run home before Chris made it 7-4 with a sacrifice fly out.
 
Jennifer Moose (Statesville, N.C.) put the Lady Railsplitters in business in the top of the seventh with a leadoff single, and Goins capitalized on that with a two-run bomb to cut the deficit to 7-6. Johnson singled in the next at-bat to put the potential tying run on base, but a fly out and a groundout left her stranded at first.
 
Game Three: Lincoln Memorial 10, Shippensburg 4
 
All nine starters reached base safely for the Lady Railsplitters, while Taylor moved to 8-3 by working around 10 hits to throw her ninth complete game of the season.
 
Fraley, Jones, Hunter and Pittman each recorded two hits in the contest, and Moose belted her third home run of the season. Schrimpf was one of three starters to go hitless, but walked three times and scored two runs.
 
Moose got the scoring started in the bottom of the third with a two-out solo home run. Shippensburg responded to tie the game in the top of the fourth on an RBI single from Kendall Geis.
 
However, the Raiders wouldn't score again until the Lady Railsplitters had already established a 7-1 lead. Johnson plated a run with a sacrifice fly out in the bottom of the fourth, while Pittman followed with a two-run double in the next at-bat. Fraley capped another three-run frame in the fifth with a two-run double.
 
Shippensburg got back on the board on Emily Zaring's two-run homer in the top of the sixth, but the Lady Railsplitters tacked on three more in the sixth. Jones and Pittman each had run-scoring hits in that frame.
 
The Raiders scored their final run of the ballgame on a single from Macy Luck in the top of the seventh.