HobbsDailyReport.com
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – A sweep on the road Saturday closed out another South Atlantic Conference (SAC) women’s softball regular-season title for Lenoir-Rhyne University.
The Bears, ranked No. 11 in NCAA Division II, won 3-1 and 7-5 at Carson-Newman to improve to 40-5 overall and 17-1 in the SAC. Carson-Newman dropped to 27-17 overall and 7-11 in the league.
LRU — which came from three runs down to win the second game — has won 14 straight games.
The Bears are at home Wednesday at 3 p.m. to close the regular season, facing Newberry (S.C.) in a conference game.
LRU’s regular-season title is its 12th, its third straight and seven of those dozen have been outright.
The Bears are 38-2 in their last 40 games.
LRU 3, Carson-Newman 1
Junior Brandi Parks improved to 18-3 and won her 14th consecutive game, striking out four in a complete game victory.
Bears freshman first baseman Kylee Leonhardt opened the scoring with an RBI double in the first inning and finished with two hits, and freshman outfielder Savannah Moorefield added a run-scoring single for the Bears.
For Carson-Newman, Katie Pritchett drove in a run but Lacie Rinus fell to 17-9 after taking a loss.
LRU 7, Carson-Newman 5, 8 inn.
Trailing 4-1 entering the top of the seventh inning, LRU scored three runs to force extra innings then added three more runs in the eighth inning to complete a rally.
Senior catcher Mackenzie Cates tied it 4-all with a two-run home run with two outs in the seventh inning before Moorefield delivered a game-winning, two-run double in the eighth inning. Moorefield had four hits and Cates’ home run was her team-best 11th of the year.
Freshman Kimberly Blair (2-0) earned a victory for the Bears while junior Emily Kenley retired the last two batters for her first save of the season.
For Carson-Newman, Rinus hit a two-run home run and finished with four hits and three RBIs but fell to 17-10 after being tagged with a loss.
- Reported by LRU Sports Information