JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.  — The first NCAA Tournament victory is in the books for the Lincoln Memorial University softball team.
 
The Lady Railsplitters were more than ready for their first-ever appearance as Bailey Griffith guided No. 3-seeded LMU past South Atlantic Conference foe, No. 6-seeded Wingate, 3-1, in the opening round of the NCAA Regional at the Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Softball Complex Thursday in Jefferson City, Tenn.
 
"We are excited and hoped we would be at our competitive best today in this kind of setting, and I felt like we were," LMU head coach Ritchie Richardson said. "We, obviously, didn't score as many runs as we'd like but our pitcher was phenomenal today. When you get to this time of postseason, if you get a pitcher who's hot, I don't know if you could ask for anything else."
 
LMU (36-13) will now face No. 2-seeded and host Carson-Newman (29-10) in the winner's bracket of the Southeast Regional at 10 a.m. Friday. In the regular season, the Lady Railsplitters swept the Eagles on their home field, which was the first doubleheader win at C-N since 1988.
 
The Lady Railsplitters were on a two-out rally all Thursday afternoon. Emma Webb started it off when she laced a double to the fence, scoring the SAC Freshman of the Year in Sierra Hucklebee (walk) for the first run of LMU's postseason history. McKenzie Henry kept it going as she smacked a RBI-single to bring Webb home, capping the two-run first inning and beginning their NCAA Regional the right way.
 
The Bulldogs (32-18) barked back in the top of the second inning as Jordan Floyd took a first-pitch home run over he left-field wall, cutting the deficit in half to come within one, 2-1, but Griffith (W, 15-7) didn't let it linger.
 
"Just have to laugh it off. You win some, you lose some," the freshman pitcher said. "There are some good hitters out there, just like there are good pitchers and I know because I used to hit. … People are still going to hit no matter what and you have to keep going and know you're good enough to keep going."
 
Griffith proved she was fit for the task as she allowed just three more hits following that solo shot to make it a one-run game. In her complete-game performance, the White Bluff, Tenn., native allowed just that lone run on five hits while striking out four.
 
"Bailey told us in the dugout after that, that she made a pitching mistake and left the ball out over the plate," Richardson said, "but she made adjustments and you can see in the innings following, she pitched herself out of trouble in a few spots. I thought she did a fantastic job of mixing and keeping them off balance. Her change-up was great today. It was a gutsy performance … for her to come out today and give us a complete-game effort, hats off to her."

The Bulldogs' biggest threat after the second inning was in the fifth, when back-to-back bunts put two on with zero outs.

But, Griffith got out of it with a nifty snag herself, while Allie Jones caught an over-the-shoulder fly ball to save the potential game-tying run and the other out came in a pop up to right field.
 
"For them, that might have been the inning where they think, 'Hey, we plate a couple right here, we got a shot at this,'" Richardson said. "Allie Jones makes a great catch in left field. ... Certainly, it swung any momentum that they had there for a brief moment back in our favor, I thought."
 
The Lady Railsplitters took that momentum and used it to add an insurance run. With two outs again, Henry (2-for-3) pushed across a double, scoring Ty-Kella Goins, who also doubled to extend her hitting streak to seven games and her nation's leading category to 23. Henry's two-RBI day also pushed her two closer and three away to the single-season record 57, while Goins' double has her three from tying the single-season record 26.
 
Henry and Webb (2-for-3, 2B) were the lone Lady Railsplitters to record multi-hit days as SAC Player of the Year Aubrey Reep (L,15-8) limited the LMU bats to three runs on seven hits, but the two-out, clutch hits were just enough as Griffith did the rest to guide LMU to its first-ever NCAA Regional victory.
 
"It's exciting to know I can go out there, even though I haven't been full speed, and still help my team get to where we want to be," Griffith said.