HARROGATE, Tenn. – Allie Jones lifted a walk-off sac fly out in the bottom of the eighth inning to help the Lady Railsplitters end the 2018 season on a high note with a South Atlantic Conference split against Coker on Saturday at Dorothy Neely Field.
A dominant pitching performance from
Justice Smith set the stage for Jones' walk-off in a 2-1 extra-innings win in Saturday's night cap, but that victory was not enough to propel the Lady Railsplitters into the SAC tournament. Lincoln Memorial (24-22, 7-13 SAC) dropped game one of the doubleheader to the Cobras (33-15, 12-8 SAC) to finish one game back of Carson-Newman and Catawba, who earned the final two berths to the conference tournament after splitting their doubleheader on Saturday.
Game One: Coker 5, Lincoln Memorial 1
The Lady Railsplitters were limited to less than five hits for just the sixth time all season by Coker starter Christine Carver, who surrendered just four hits and struck out seven without a walk to guide the Cobras to victory.
Kelsie Hocutt accounted for Lincoln Memorial's only run of the game when she ended Carver's shutout bid with a leadoff solo home run – her eighth of the season - in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Jacie Pittman had the team's only other extra-base hit with a double to lead off the fourth.
The Cobras did all of their damage in the first three innings.
Anna Gluhosky led off the game with a single and scored two batters later on Maria Williamson's single to left center. The Cobras tacked on two runs in each of the next two innings as well on Courtney Boan's second-inning, two-run single and a two-run homer from Allyson High in the third to take an early 5-0 lead.
After High's homer, senior pitcher
Brianna Taylor retired 14 of the last 16 batters she faced to keep the Cobras in check the rest of the way. Coker was unable to advance a runner past second base over that stretch, but Carver went step for step with Taylor, retiring nine of the last 11 Lady Railsplitters to come to the plate.
Lincoln Memorial's best scoring chance prior to Hocutt's solo shot in the seventh came in the fourth, when Pittman led off with a double and Hocutt was hit by a pitch to put two runners on with two outs. However,
Grace Cochran ground out to end the threat.
In her final appearance for the Lady Railsplitters, Taylor allowed nine hits and five earned runs with two strikeouts and no walks to finish her final season in the Blue and Gray with a 9-12 overall record.
Game Two: Lincoln Memorial 2, Coker 1 (8 innings)
Smith and Coker starter Taylor Forehand went toe-to-toe in a pitcher's duel in Saturday's finale.
Smith produced one of her best outings of the season, matching a season-high mark with eight innings pitched while holding the Cobras to just five hits. She struck out five and walked two to end the season with a 14-9 record.
Forehand allowed just five hits and one earned run as well over seven-plus innings of work, striking out eight and walking two, but took the loss after departing with two runners on and no outs in the bottom of the eighth.
The Lady Railsplitters and Cobras were locked in a scoreless stalemate through the first four innings, but both teams plated a run in the fifth inning.
Madison King singled, stole second and advanced to third via a throwing error to give the Cobras a runner on third base with only one out in the top of the fifth. Gluhosky then rolled a grounder to second base, where
Ty-Kella Goins fielded it and made a throw to home. The throw beat King there but the ball was knocked out of Pittman's glove on the slide to put Coker in front 1-0.
Pittman and the Lady Railsplitters answered in the home half of the fifth, though, as
Savannah Daniel singled, advanced to second on a bunt and scored on Pittman's clutch two-out double into left center.
Neither team was able to advance a runner as far as second base over the next two innings to send the game to extras with the score tied at 1-1.
Coker led off the top of the eighth by bunting the runner over to third. In the very next at-bat, Hannah Price grounded a ball to Hocutt, and the first baseman stepped on the bag and caught the potential go-ahead run at home to end the inning with a 3-2 double play.
That set the stage for Jones' walk-off as the junior lifted a fly ball to center field that scored Daniel after she advanced to third on Goins' lead-off single.
