HARROGATE, Tenn. — Sierra Hucklebee's second walk-off hit of the season powered the No. 23 Lincoln Memorial University softball team to its South Atlantic Conference doubleheader-opening, 5-4, victory before visiting Queens used a three-run fifth inning in the second game to trump the Lady Railsplitters, 3-2, for the conference split Saturday at Dorothy Neely Field.
In both games, the Lady Railsplitters (26-6, 4-2 SAC) struggled to score with runners in scoring position as they left 12 on base in first game and then eight more in the last.
Queens pitcher Courtney Pearson (L, 8-2) limited LMU and the conference's best offense to just six hits in the Saturday opener, but the Lady Railsplitters didn't even need one to score first. Two errors, a walk and hit-by-pitch plated
Emma Webb (1-for-2, 2B) as
Kelsie Tuggle used a sacrifice fly to get LMU on the board.
The Royals (14-6, 4-2) gave Justice Smtih (W, 8-0) her only struggles in the third inning, where Queens scored three runs via a Sydney Ditto triple and McKenzie McCullen's two-run blast to take the 3-1 lead. Those were the only earned runs Smith allowed in her complete-game performance with six strikeouts.
LMU matched the Royals' trio with one of its own in the fifth inning as all runners were safe on
Jacie Pittman's fielder's choice ball, plating Kelise Hocutt before
Grace Cochran (1-for-3, RBI, BB) brought Webb around following her double to knot the score. It was then
Bella Buccellato (1-for-2) and her single to plate Cochran and take the one-run lead.
The Royals scored the equalizer in the top of the seventh inning as Grace Valchar singled, and Sabrina Martinez did the base running for her, stealing and then scoring on a throwing error to third base.
That run didn't matter, though, as the Royals opted to intentionally walk
Ty-Kella Goins for the second time. In the next at-bat, Hucklebee made them pay with her lone hit in the opening game as her single through left center was just enough to bring
Kelsie Tuggle (walk) to score the game-winning run.
In the second game, the Lady Railsplitters scored both runs via the bat of Buccellato (2-for-2) as she singled in Tuggle (walk) in the first inning and doubled in Webb in the sixth frame. Webb's run in the sixth brought the score to one run as
Jacie Pittman was rounding the bases behind her, but was called out at homeplate, which would have been the game-tying run.
The Royals' fifth-inning rally was due to a sloppy frame from the Lady Railsplitters that saw a pair of errors to put Queens in position to strike. A sac fly gave the visiting team its first run before Ditto shot her second triple of the day down the right-field line, plating two more runs for the eventual game-winning runs.
Freshman
Faith Howe (L, 8-3) was composed in the circle for the Lady Railsplitters, allowing zero earned runs on six hits and a pair of strikeouts.
LMU made another come-from-behind attempt in the bottom of the seventh, having two on with one out, but were ultimately unable to get anything going. Shannon McGuire (W, 5-3) tamed the Lady Railsplitters' bats, allowing the two runs on seven hits with five strikeouts to hand LMU its second loss in an 18-game stretch.
Up Next
The Lady Railsplitters will have their Spring Break week off before hitting the field again Saturday, April 3 at Newberry in a 1 p.m. doubleheader.
