HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Lady Railsplitters (21-16, 4-8 SAC) combined for seven home runs and 25 hits in a doubleheader split against the Queens Royals (17-23, 3-11 SAC) in South Atlantic Conference softball action on Saturday at Dorothy Neely Field.
Queens scored five runs through the first three innings of game one and held on for a 7-4 victory, but Lincoln Memorial returned the favor in game two by smashing five home runs – one shy of tying the program record – to power an 8-4 win.
The Lady Railsplitters, who have now split four consecutive doubleheaders, travel to Jefferson City, Tennessee on Tuesday, April 11 for a SAC twinbill against the Carson-Newman Eagles. First pitch in game one is set for 3 p.m.
Game One: Queens 7, Lincoln Memorial 4
The Lady Railsplitters racked up 11 hits but left nine runners stranded on base and went 5-for-20 with runners on base to drop the first game of Saturday's doubleheader.
Allie Jones went 3-for-4, scored twice and hit her fourth home run of the season to lead the LMU attack, while
Dakotah Fraley finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and a home run – her fifth of the season.
Ty-Kella Goins also contributed two hits with a double.
Brianna Taylor (12-8) was roughed up by the Royals, who recorded five hits and five earned runs off the right-hander over 2.2 innings. Taylor walked two and struck out one before being replaced by
Justice Smith in the top of the third. Smith was solid in her relief appearance, striking out seven while surrendering just one earned run in 4.1 innings.
Ashton Whitaker went 3-for-4 with three RBI and a home run to fuel the Royals' victory. Sydney Ditto and Alyssa Strickler added two hits apiece, while Strickler drove in two and Ditto scored twice.
Evie Scott made the start for Queens, walking three with two hits and one run allowed in two-plus innings. Courtney Pearson (12-13) earned the win despite giving up nine hits and three earned runs in five innings of relief work.
Whitaker helped the Royals jump ahead in the top of the first by belting a towering two-run home run down the left-field line, but Fraley cut Queens' lead in half in the bottom of that inning by driving the first pitch she saw over the wall in left to make it a 2-1 game. The Lady Railsplitters put two more runners on base following Fraley's blast courtesy of two walks, but were unable to push another run across.
The top of the Queens batting order sparked another rally in the third, as Ditto led off with a single and scored on Whitaker's base hit back up the middle. Strickler increased the Royals' lead to 4-1 with an RBI single down the right-field line, which chased Taylor from the game. Scott dropped another run-scoring single into left field to cap the three-run inning.
Jones cut into the Royals' lead in the bottom of the fourth with a no-doubt solo home run to right field. However, Queens erased that in the top of the sixth, as Fraley's two-out throwing error allowed Breanna Martinez to score and made it 6-2 in favor of the Royals.
Brianna Schrimpf and Jones singled to kick-start a rally for the Lady Railsplitters in the bottom of the sixth. A double play looked as if it would keep LMU off the board, but Jones was able to score on
Savannah Daniel's stolen base, while Fraley singled home Daniel in the next at-bat to cut the deficit to 6-4.
The Royals added an insurance run in the top of the seventh on Strickler's RBI double. The Lady Railsplitters brought the potential tying run to the plate in the bottom of that inning after Goins led off with a double and
Ashlea Hunter singled two batters later. However, a strikeout and a groundout back to the pitcher left both runners stranded and ended the game.
Game Two: Lincoln Memorial 8, Queens 4
Moose went 4-for-4, drove in three runs and finished a triple shy of the cycle to front Lincoln Memorial's 14-hit effort. Goins finished 3-for-3 with two runs scored and a home run, while Jones and Hunter also added two hits apiece with a homer in the contest.
Meredith Johnson produced just one hit, but that was a two-run bomb, her fourth of the season.
Taylor (13-8) rebounded from the game-one loss by holding the Royals to six hits and two runs over 6.2 innings. Smith made a brief relief appearance, but allowed four hits and two runs while recording just a single out in the top of the fifth before Taylor was brought back into the game.
Kelly Winter drove in two of Queens' four runs in the contest as part of a 2-for-4 performance that included a double and a home run. Ditto went 2-for-4 with two runs and a double, while Elaine Frantellizzi had a pair of singles.
Scott (5-6) was saddled with the loss after allowing six hits and six earned runs over just 1.2 innings of work.
The Lady Railsplitters' aerial assault started on back-to-back solo home runs by Goins and Moose in the bottom of the first.
The second inning began harmlessly with a pair of outs that didn't leave the infield. However, four of the next five batters laced extra-base hits to power a five-run inning for the Lady Railsplitters. Hunter sparked that with an opposite-field home run, and Fraley followed with a double. After Goins was hit by a pitch, Moose doubled home two more runs. In the very next at-bat, Johnson connected on a two-run shot to make it 7-0.
Queens got two runs back in the top of the third on Winter's two-run home run, and later tacked on two more runs in the fifth, as Whitaker drove in a run with a single and pinch runner Skye Moore scored during a rundown between first and second to close the gap to 7-4.
Jones gave the Lady Railsplitters some breathing room by crushing a solo home run – her second of the day and the team's fifth of the game – in the bottom of the fifth to make it an 8-4 game.
That proved to be the final deficit, as Taylor left two runners stranded in the top of the sixth and one more in the seventh to wrap things up.
