CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The No. 19 Queens Royals (29-7, 6-4 SAC) took both ends of a South Atlantic Conference doubleheader from the Lady Railsplitters on Friday afternoon at Park Road Park.
Lincoln Memorial led early in game one but the Royals scored six unanswered runs to win it 6-2. The Lady Railsplitters never led in game two as Queens jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first and cruised to a 7-1 victory to complete the sweep.
The schedule doesn't let up for Lincoln Memorial, which resumes its six-game road trip on Monday with a SAC doubleheader at No. 12 Lenoir-Rhyne. First pitch in game one is set for 1 p.m.
Game One: Queens 6, Lincoln Memorial 2
Jacie Pittman went 3-for-3 with a double and a run scored while
Ty-Kella Goins finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run, but the rest of the team combined for just two hits.
The Lady Railsplitters were staked to an early 2-0 lead as Goins singled to lead off the game and scored on an error by the Queens second baseman. Lincoln Memorial pushed its second run across in the second inning when Pittman led off with a double and scored two batters later on Goins' single.
The Lady Railsplitters were unable to advance a runner past second base for the remainder of the game, though, while Queens scored in four of its six offensive innings to rally for the victory.
The Royals took the lead for good in the bottom of the second inning as Sara Ingoldsby singled in a run before Syndey Ditto drove two runs home with a single. An RBI double by Kelly Winter tacked on another run in the third to make it 4-2.
Queens later added a pair of insurance runs in the fifth and sixth frames. A leadoff solo home run by Abby Lathan accounted for the fifth-inning run while a catcher's interference brought the game's sixth and final run across in the sixth.
Brianna Taylor allowed nine hits, matched a season-high mark with seven strikeouts and allowed five earned runs to slip to 8-8 on the season.
Ingoldsby, Ditto and Winter had two hits apiece to lead the Royals attack. Courtney Pearson picked up the win to move to 12-5 on the season by allowing seven hits and one earned run with seven strikeouts over seven innings of work.
Game Two: Queens 7, Lincoln Memorial 1
The LMU offense was once again kept in check as
Grace Cochran and
Kelsie Hocutt had two hits apiece while the rest of the team accounted for just one hit.
Allie Jones drew a pair of walks and
Audrey Petoskey drove in the Lady Railsplitters' lone run of the game with a solo home run.
Queens, meanwhile, piled up 10 hits, including five extra-base knocks. Ingoldsby went 2-for-3 with an RBI while nine other Royals had a hit in the contest. Lathan again homered as did Madison Ackerman to drive in five of the team's seven runs.
Ackerman's three-run homer in the bottom of the second inning gave the Royals a lead that they would not relinquish.
The Lady Railsplitters put their only run on the board in the top of the second when Petoskey led off with her fifth homer of the season. However, Queens erased that with a two-out RBI single by Ingoldsby in the bottom half of the second.
Queens then added a run in the fourth on a throwing error and two more in the fifth on Lathan's two-run dinger.
Queens starter Shannon McGuire retired the final nine batters she faced, struck out seven and walked four to move to 12-1 on the season with the complete-game victory.
Justice Smith was dealt the loss after giving up 10 hits and five earned runs while striking five over six innings of work.
The loss sent Lincoln Memorial to its first SAC sweep of the season as well as the program's first-ever sweep at the hands of Queens.
