HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Lady Railsplitters took two games from Tusculum to sweep its first South Atlantic Conference doubleheader of the season and remain in the hunt to earn a bid to the conference tournament on Wednesday afternoon at Dorothy Neely Field. 
 
Powered by a solid performance on the mound and at the plate, Lincoln Memorial (23-21, 6-12 SAC) led wire-to-wire in a 6-1 victory over the Pioneers (22-23, 6-12 SAC) in game one. The Lady Railsplitters then used a five-run fifth inning to take the lead for good in a come-from-behind 9-7 triumph in the nightcap. 
 
With the two wins, the Lady Railsplitters moved just one game back of eighth place in the SAC standings with one doubleheader remaining in the regular-season schedule. The top eight teams in the final league standings earn bids to the SAC tournament. 
 
Lincoln Memorial will look to play its way into the conference tournament on Saturday as they host Coker for the final two games of the regular season at Dorothy Neely Field. Game one is set for a 1 p.m. first pitch. 
 
Game One: Lincoln Memorial 6, Tusculum 1 
 
The Lady Railsplitters took the lead in the bottom of the first, added another run in the third and broke the game open with a four spot in the sixth to take game one from the Pioneers.
 
Allie Jones went 3-for-3 with a double and drove in three of the team's six runs. Jacie Pittman reached in all four plate appearances, going 3-for-3 with a double and a walk. Emma Webb and Grace Cochran added a pair of hits apiece, while Teddi Collins produced her second clutch pinch hit in three games by delivering a two-run double in the sixth. 
 
Those six runs were more than enough for Brianna Taylor, who allowed just six hits and one walk while striking out one over seven innings of work. Taylor kept the Pioneers scoreless until Emma Casey ended her shutout bid with a leadoff solo home run in the top of the seventh. Taylor moved to 10-11 on the season with the victory.
 
Brittney Franse was the only Pioneer with multiple hits, finishing 2-for-3 with a pair of singles. Aside from Casey's homer, Taylor Johnson had the team's only other extra-base hit with a double.  
 
Lincoln Memorial took the lead right from the jump as Jones followed back-to-back infield singles from Ty-Kella Goins and Pittman with a sac fly to right field in the bottom of the first. Jones drove in her second run of the game and added to the Lady Railsplitters' lead in the third with a double into the gap in left center to score Pittman, who sparked the rally with a double of her own. 
 
The score held at 2-0 until the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Lady Railsplitters used Cochran's leadoff single and a costly throwing error to push four runs across. Collins' pinch-hit double plated the first two runs of the inning before back-to-back singles from Jones and Webb capped the scoring. 
 
Casey led off the seventh with a solo home run and Franse followed with a single to shallow right field but Taylor shut it down from there with a pair of groundouts and a fly out to right field. 
 
Taylor Plemons took the loss for Tusculum, surrendering all 13 Lady Railsplitter hits and six runs (two earned) over 5.2 innings of action. She struck out four and walked one before giving way to Allison Pate down the stretch. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters hit .450 with runners on base and a sizzling .467 with runners in scoring position. By contrast, Tusculum was 1-for-11 with runners on and 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. 
 
Game Two: Lincoln Memorial 9, Tusculum 7 
 
The Lady Railsplitters produced their second-most hits in a SAC game this season with 15 to dust off the sweep. 
 
Goins had a monster performance with a 4-for-4 effort that included two RBI. Audrey Petoskey broke out of a slump with a 3-for-3 outing that featured a double and an RBI. Jones went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and an RBI, while Webb finished with multiple hits again as well. Eight of LMU's nine starters accounted for at least one hit in the contest. 
 
The Pioneers were in control early as Emily Hester drove in a run with a single in the top of the first and tacked on another with an RBI fielder's choice in the third. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters drew the game even in the bottom of the third as Goins singled and scored on a double from Jones. Webb followed that up with another double into the gap in left center to make it 2-2. 
 
Tusculum reclaimed the lead in the very next half inning on an RBI groundout from Morgan Mahaffey and a Taylor Battle RBI knock, but the Lady Railsplitters scored six unanswered runs after that to take the lead once and for all. 
 
Collins pushed a run across in the home half of the fourth on an RBI single before Lincoln Memorial busted the game open with its five-run fifth. The Lady Railsplitters batted around that inning, which was highlighted by a two-run double from Cochran, a two-run single from Goins and an RBI single by Pittman. 
 
The Pioneers got two runs back in the top of the sixth on a Delaney Guerrero two-run single, but the Lady Railsplitters erased one of those runs in the bottom half of that inning on Petoskey's RBI single, which made it a 9-6 lead heading into the seventh. 
 
Johnson hit a solo home run in the top of the seventh to pull the Pioneers within two, but Justice Smith struck out the last two batters she faced to end the game. 
 
Smith went all seven innings for the Lady Railsplitters, allowing 11 hits and seven earned runs while striking out five and walking two to move to 13-9 overall. 
 
Battle went 3-for-4 with an RBI to lead the Tusculum offense. Anna Alloway added a pair of singles. 
 
Pate took the loss after allowing eight hits and six earned runs in 2.1 innings of relief to fall to 9-10 on the season. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters were again sensational in key situations, batting .417 with runners on base and .400 with runners in scoring position.