SALISBURY, N.C. — One down, two to go.
 
The top-seeded Lady Railsplitters took care of business versus No. 8-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne Saturday as Emma Webb and McKenzie Henry blasted the Lincoln Memorial University softball team into the next round of the South Atlantic Conference Championships behind a 5-1 victory over the Bears at Whitley Field.
 
"L-R actually out-hit us by three or four hits; ours were just bigger hits and that's just one of those funny things about this game," LMU head coach Ritchie Richardson said. "You need to get them at the right time. Sometimes they are big hits and sometimes they are little hits. They were big hits and they put us up and kept us up. We felt once we did that, that we were in a position to win."
 
No. 24 LMU, who was awarded with its first-ever regular-season SAC championship trophy following the round one win, will now face No. 5-seeded Anderson in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Sunday. If the Lady Railsplitters were to take that victory as well, it would advance them into the championship game at 4 p.m.
 
Third time's a charm, even when a team has won the previous two meetings in the same season and LMU (35-12) proved that notion. Lenoir-Rhyne (26-19) had the first say Saturday, but the Lady Railsplitters had the next which equaled into the last.
 
The Bears scored its lone run in the first inning when Kylee Leonhardt's sacrifice fly scored Savannah Moorefield; however, that lead didn't last long. LMU answered the exact same way as Kelsie Hocutt flew out to right field, scoring All-SAC first team member Ty-Kella Goins (2-for-3) who doubled to get things rocking in Salisbury, N.C., where the Lady Railsplitters secured their first SAC outright championship just this past Monday.
 
After Faith Howe allowed that run, the freshman didn't allow another one to cross over her three innings. And neither did Bailey Griffith (W, 14-7), who allowed four hits but zero runs over a pair of frames, or Justice Smith as she pitched the final two innings to secure the first-round victory.
 
"We had what we call "Operation Kitchen Sink," where we just throw everybody at them," Richardson said. "Faith has done a really nice job recently of being a good starter — her first three innings have been really good, and then Bailey pitches well in the middle of games typically and Justice has kind of been the closer for us. So, we put them in role spots where we thought that they were at their best. They did a good job."
 
The offense did the rest. First, it was Hocutt's sac fly that knotted the single-elimination game at 1-all, and then Webb and Henry broke things up in the bottom of the third.
 
Webb sent her lone hit up and over the wall for the sophomore's second home run of the season in the three-run shot, scoring Sierra Hucklebee (walk) and Hocutt (HBP) to go up for good.
 
Henry (2-for-3) capped off the five-run victory with her 13th blast of the year, which gave the Lady Railsplitters an extra insurance run in case of a Bear rally that ended up not happening.
 
"Gosh, I've always thought it's hard to beat a team one time," Richardson said. "I think the big difference today was that our attitude is like it should be. Sometimes you sweep a team and you get to thinking, 'Hey, we beat these guys twice earlier. We are really good. It should be easy this time.'
 
"That's when it's hard to beat a team the third time. I thought our girls came out with a great attitude today, knew that we had to work extremely hard to get a win, and they played each possession start to finish."
 
Closing in
-With McKenzie Henry's 13th home run on Saturday, the freshman catcher comes within three homers of the all-time, single-season record 16. Brittney Walker (2007) holds that home run record, while Sara Henn (2008) sits in first in runs batted in with 57 as Henry is five away with her 52.
 
-Ty-Kella Goins' smacked her 22nd double versus the Bears, putting her in third place in a single season, which is four away from the record Walker set in 2007 with 26 total.
 
Wearing it out
-With her 17th hit-by-pitch Saturday, Bella Buccellato moved into sole possession of first place, surpassing Savannah Couch (2016) for the most hit-by-pitches in an LMU single-season.