GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – First it was the batting that got the job done, then the pitching did the talking in a much tighter second half for the Lincoln Memorial University softball squad, who improved to 16-1 on the year at Tusculum on Wednesday afternoon, who've now defeated the Pioneers in six out of the last seven occasions in LMU's oldest rivalry.

Producing their second-highest scoring output of 2021 in the opener behind 12 hits and an eight-run top of the 4^th, the Lady Railsplitters outgunned Tusculum 14-7 to get the day started. While the majority of the offense wasn't as strong in the second half of the DH, it was still just enough to give LMU its fifth victory of the year by a one-run margin, squeezing out a 4-3 triumph in the closer.
 
Game 1 – No. 6 Lincoln Memorial def. Tusculum 14-7
 
In a rollercoaster of momentum swings across the opening act on Wednesday, the Lady Railsplitters (16-1, 5-1 SAC), who hopped to the #6 slot in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll earlier in the day to set a new program record for their highest placement ever in the rankings, fell behind early on by a 2-0 hole. All they would need was an eight-run 4^th inning to create some distance, withstanding a Tusculum rally throughout the rest of the day to eventually win by a comfortable figure.

Eight different LMU players recorded at least one hit in the high-octane affair, led by two each from the quartet of Ty-Kella Goins, Sierra Hucklebee, Emma Webb, and McKenzie Henry. Goins, Hucklebee, and junior leftfielder Sami West synced up for eight RBI on their way to the win.

It wasn't always smooth sailing for the Lady Railsplitters, who fell victim to an Alexis Grampp RBI-double in the bottom of the 3^rd, which preceded a Claire Smeltzer ground out that scored Anna Alloway. Grampp remained a thorn in LMU's side through all of Game 1, going 2-4 at the plate next to 4 RBI.

Things quickly went south for the Pioneers (6-8, 0-2 SAC), in one of the most lopsided innings of the season for LMU. A grand total of 14 at-bats plagued Tusculum in the bottom of the 4^th, jumpstarted by a two-RBI double from West. Making her first career start at first base, freshman Katie Tuggle gave LMU the lead for good by sprinting home on a wild pitch, before a Goins two-RBI single suddenly gave the Lady Railsplitters a 5-2 advantage.

Both Goins and Madison Henry found home on a Tusculum throwing error in a fielder's choice scenario, and the cataclysmic stanza for the Pioneers finally came to an end after senior catcher Audrey Petoskey was struck by a pitch with the bases juiced, pushing the lead out to 8-2.

Rattled by the events of the previous inning, Tusculum was silenced in the bottom of the 4^th, but found an eruption of their own one period later in the form of a five-run flurry to whittle the lead down to just one. Alloway gave TC some life with an RBI single up the middle, before Grampp launched a three-run bomb to right field, one of a pair of three-RBI homers given up by LMU on the day.

Kaylee Higgins kept the pressure on the Lady Railsplitters with an RBI infield single to bring the score within one in the blink of an eye. Luckily for Head Coach Ritchie Richardson's club, the five-run jolt from the Pioneers in the fifth frame was all the damage they would deal for the remainder of the contest.

Further solidifying the seesaw nature of Game 1, LMU countered with a six-run burst in the top of the 6^th, started by a McKenzie Henry sacrifice fly ball and another TC fielding error that inadvertently scored pinch runner Victoria Mounce.

Just three batters apart, Goins and Hucklebee fired off a combo of two RBI doubles to opposite sides of the field to bring the lead to 14-7 where it would stay for the rest of the game. In total, LMU blasted seven doubles on Wednesday to help its cause in collecting the sweep.

Junior Bailey Griffith grabbed the win in the circle off of four innings of work, bending but not breaking during the Tusculum comeback try to improve to 4-0 individually.
 
Game 2 – No. 6 Lincoln Memorial def. Tusculum 4-3
 
In a battle between two feisty pitchers as the sun began to fall in Game 2, Emma Frost and Kaitlyn Pickens combined for 18 strikeouts as they both went the distance. Frost narrowly took the W in the end, moving to 6-1 for the sophomore Morristown, Tenn. native.

The only blemish on LMU's defensive efforts in the second outing was the Pioneers' second three-run home run of the day, coming in the bottom of the 3^rd courtesy of Grampp, who went yard for the sixth time in 2021. That HR knotted the score up at three apiece, where the Lady Railsplitters promptly retook the advantage in the 4^th and held on from there.

Picking up where they left off at the plate in the opening stanza, Petoskey rifled a two-RBI double to left center as the sixth batter in the lineup, bringing Madison Henry and Hucklebee around the diamond.

Emma Webb would be the next Lady Railsplitter to touch home base in the top of the 3^rd just before Grampp's second dinger of the afternoon, doing so on a double to the same vicinity as Petoskey's hit that got the blue and gray on the board.

The balance in hitting was noticeable for LMU in a similar manner to Game 1, spreading out six hits to six different batters in the victory. While it wasn't one of those six hits, Madison Henry's sacrifice fly in the top of the 4^th proved to be the deciding factor, scoring freshman Katy Pozzuto, who mirrored Tuggle from the first game by making her first career start at first base.

In danger of allowing the tying run in the bottom of the 6^th inning, Frost was able to prevent three straight batters from getting on base after the opening batter was hit by a pitch before stealing second. That momentary lapse was the Pioneers' last gasp, as the Lady Railsplitters have now emerged victorious in 21 of their last 22 appearances.
 
Up Next
 
Staying on the road for the second time this week, LMU ventures to Newberry on Saturday for another South Atlantic Conference doubleheader. The Wolves raced out of the gates in 2021 by starting off the season 10-1, but have gone 0-3 since then, most recently dropping a pair of games to UVA Wise on Tuesday.

Nearly even in the all-time series, the Lady Railsplitters cling to a 14-13 lead against the Wolves in a history dating back to 2002. LMU snapped a five-game losing skid to Newberry in the second meeting of the 2019 campaign by a 7-5 margin in the last time the two schools locked horns.

Game times over the weekend are scheduled for 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. from Smith Road Softball Complex in South Carolina.
 
How to Follow
 
Stay tuned to LMURailsplitters.com, as well as LMU's social media platforms —@LMURailsplitter on Twitter, @LMURailsplitters on Facebook and @lmurailsplitters on Instagram — for more LMU softball coverage across the 2021 season.