HARROGATE, Tenn. — In a doubleheader that combined for 41 runs on 63 hits, a wild finish only seemed fitting.
 
After the Lady Railsplitters failed to score in the final three frames of the 11-9 game one loss versus No. 20 Wingate, the Lincoln Memorial University softball team flipped the script in the second game. LMU put up eight runs in the last three frames to stun the Bulldogs in walk-off fashion, winning 11-10 for the South Atlantic Conference doubleheader split at Dorothy Neely Field Saturday.
 
The victory awarded LMU (23-5, 1-1 SAC) its first victory over the Bulldogs (18-8, 1-1) since 2016, having lost five straight before McKenzie Henry's bases-loaded walk scored Bella Buccellato to complete the three-run seventh inning. The Lady Railsplitters have now won the last 12 of 13 games.
 
Before the final-frame rally, the Lady Railsplitters begin chipping away at the Bulldogs' lead they started building from the get-go with a four-run first inning. Heading into the bottom of the fifth frame, LMU trailed 7-3 — with those three runs coming in the second inning via an RBI-single from Grace Cochran and Jacie Pittman plus a Sierra Hucklebee sac fly — and started chipping away the deficit.
 
Kelsie Hocutt (2-for-4, 2B, HR) scored on a wild pitch, and with two outs Cochran singled in Emma Webb, who also singled on her 3-for-4 day with a double, before Pittman (3-for-4, 2 RBI) used another single to bring Cochran (3-for-3, 2 RBI, walk) around and make it 8-6. Wingate got a run back in the top of the sixth, but Hocutt got one too plus one as she belted her second home run of the day over the left-field wall, scoring Ty-Kella Goins (error).
 
The Bulldogs again plated a run in the top of the seventh on reliever Bailey Griffith, who lost the first game in the circle and then won the next to improve to 10-3, but the Lady Railsplitters made up for it.
 
After only getting one hit off Aubrey Reep, after she came into game one in the sixth inning and shut down the home offense, LMU rattled her when it mattered most. Cochran began the five-hit chain reaction as Buccellato's single pelted off the top of the wall, barely staying in the park to load the bases. Goins' single through the middle plated Cochran easily, and then Pittman slid under the tag at home plate to make it a one-run game.
 
Huckleebee singled to load the bases before Henry's third walk, this one the bases-loaded walk, which secured the epic walk-off victory to start 1-1 in SAC play.
 
In both games, the Lady Railsplitters used a pitch-by-committee approach in the circle to try and limit the Wingate offense, which belted out five home runs and was led by Mary Claire Coyne's two, and eight more extra-base hits.
 
The Lady Railsplitters were just as impressive, causing Wingate to show four pitchers in the first game before Reep (8-3) took the complete game two honors. LMU knocked out four home runs — led by Hocutt's two — and connected on five more extra-base hits.
 
In the opening game, Hucklebee (2-for-4, HR) welcomed herself to SAC play as she belted her fifth homer of the year over the left-field wall for the early lead. The Bulldogs were quiet until they ripped out a five-run, six- hit third inning to jump out in front, to only trail the next frame.
 
The Lady Railsplitters matched the huge inning with one of their own as Hocutt (2-for-4, 2B, HR) started her big day with a three-run blast to score Goins (walk) and Buccellato (single). Cochran completed the five-run frame as she doubled in Allie Jones.
 
Wingate turned right back around and re-took the lead with its four-run, five-hit fourth inning, just for the Lady Railsplitters to clap back. It was Henry sending her team-leading ninth home run over the left-field wall, scoring Hucklebee and Goins, both who singled, to knot the score at 9-all.
 
That's when Wingate tallied a run in the sixth and seventh frame each, while Reep entered and cooled LMU off for the end of the first game.