HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Lenoir-Rhyne University won three of four women’s softball games over the weekend at home and moved above .500 at 6-5.
On Saturday, the Bears won two extra-inning games against Lees-McRae, 3-2 in eight innings and 9-8 in eight innings.
The Bears won 9-1 on Friday over Virginia-Wise and fell in the nightcap 6-3.
LRU’s next games are Wednesday at home, a doubleheader against Limestone College that begins at 2 p.m.
LRU 3, Lees-McRae 2, 8 inn. (Saturday)
Macie Gibson scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning, coming home from second on a force out and an error.
Brandi Parks tossed 1 2/3 perfect innings of relief to pick up a win, getting an inning-ending lineout double play in the top of the seventh inning and retiring the side in order in the eighth on two strikeouts and a foul out.
Leanna Sherrill drove in the Bears’ first two runs, doubling home Talon LaClair in the bottom of the second inning and scoring Kylee Leonhardt with a single in the fourth inning.
Second baseman Cassie Healy’s diving stop and centerfielder Savannah Moorefield’s sliding catch helped limit Lees-McRae to one run with the bases loaded in the top of the first inning.
Lees-McRae left 12 runners on base.
LRU 9, Lees-McRae 8, 8 inn. (Saturday)
Moorefield’s bloop single to left-center drove in Gibson with the tying run and Healy with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Sherrill’s two-out bases-loaded walk, followed by Natalie Parham’s two-run single, rallied the Bears from a three-run deficit to tie it at 7 and force extra innings.
Leonhardt hit a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning.
Healy’s bunt single and a throwing error led to two runs in the bottom of the second inning as the Bears built a 3-0 lead.
First baseman Mackensi Swain recorded an unassisted double play in the top of the sixth inning.
Parks started Game 2 and re-entered in the eighth inning to pick up a win.
.Lees-McRae scored seven runs on eight consecutive hits before recording an out in the top of the third inning.
LRU 9, Virginia-Wise 1 (Friday)
Moorefield went 3-for-3, hitting home runs to lead off the first and fifth innings, and scored three runs to spark the Bears.
LRU scored seven runs in the fifth inning, highlighted by a grand slam by Swain.
The Bears had 10 hits with Leonhardt and Sherrill each getting two.
Emily Kenley threw a complete game, striking out five and walking two.
Virginia-Wise 6, LRU 3 (Friday)
LRU scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning on a throwing error when Erin Boone tried to sacrifice with a bunt.
LaClair doubled in the bottom of the sixth inning and scored on a pinch-hit single by Kailey Travis to close LRU within 5-3.
Parks took the loss, working 4 1/3 innings.
— Reported by LRU Sports Information