Monday, April 16, 2007

TUSCULUM, LMU SPLIT SOFTBALL PAIR

HARROGATE, Tenn. --- Anna Johnson went 4-for-7 to lead the Tusculum College softball team to a split of a non-conference softball doubleheader at Lincoln Memorial University Monday night at Neely Field. Tusculum (28-23) won the first game 8-1, while LMU (33-18-1) captured the night-cap 7-1. The two teams split the four-game season series.

Game 1: Tusculum 8, Lincoln Memorial 1

Judith Saavedra went 2-for-4 and scored a pair of runs as Tusculum won the opener 8-1. TC pitcher Holli Cadenhead (9-7) posted a complete game effort as she scattered eight hits, allowed a run, walked one and struck out two.

Jenica Fernandez went 1-for-3 and scored a pair of runs, while Racheal Wilburn also posted a 1-for-3 effort and drove in two RBI.

LMU’s Sarah Henn went 3-for-3 for the Lady Railsplitters, while Jessica Locker (5-2) went the distance in the circle in the losing effort.

Tusculum jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first two innings, including a three-run second as Wilburn and Saavedra accounted for RBI singles. TC added another run in the fourth as Fernandez and Willburn recorded back-to-back doubles. The Pioneers put the game away in the seventh with three more runs in the seventh.

Game 2: Lincoln Memorial 7, Tusculum 1

Brittany Walker went 3-for-3 and was a double shy of hitting for the cycle as LMU defeated Tusculum 7-1 in the second game. The Splitters finished the game with 10 hits, while starting pitcher Kelly Click went the distance as she limited Tusculum to six hits and held the Pioneers scoreless after the first inning. Henn and Tiffany Evans each added multi-hit efforts.

Johnson accounted for half of Tusculum’s offensive punch in the night-cap as she went 3-for-3 and scored TC’s only run of the game in the first inning.

After Tusculum took a 1-0 lead, Walker led off the LMU first inning with her 14^th home run of the season. The Lady Railsplitters took their first lead of the day in the third inning with a pair of runs as Walker connected on a one-out triple and came into score on Kara Faidley’s RBI double. Faidley would cross the plate herself on Henn’s single up the middle.

Tusculum will face top-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne College on Thursday at the 2007 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament, being held on the campus of Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C. TC and Lenoir-Rhyne will meet at 4:15 p.m.

- TC -