GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University softball team completed day one of the round robin at Red Edmonds Field on Friday (Feb. 10), splitting the contests with Hillsdale and Less-McRae, respectively.
Tusculum (4-3) continues its eventful weekend on Saturday (Feb. 11) with rematches against the Chargers (11 a.m.) and Bobcats (4 p.m.).
Game 1: Tusculum 2, Hillsdale 1 (8 innings)
Both starting pitchers threw seven innings of shutout ball, forcing extra innings and no-decisions. Timely bunts proved the difference.
Tusculum's first scoring opportunity came in the second inning. Sammy Jimenez drew a one-out walk, followed by Chloe Freischmidt's double, but TU did not collect.
Ireland Cavanaugh, the game one starter, hit the first batter of the third frame and a bunt single put two on with nobody out. The Pioneer defense backed up their pitcher to record successive outs.
Katelynn Hodges was hit by a pitch to begin the bottom half of the third. Alyssa Suits laid down a sacrifice bunt and Hodges moved to third on a Kallyn Newport fly out, but no run scored.
Hillsdale drilled a fourth inning leadoff double, but moved no further.
In the home half of the frame, Jimenez singled up the middle and stole her first collegiate base. Freischmidt drew a walk with one out, but TU could not capitalize.
The Chargers nearly broke through with one out in the sixth. A leadoff infield hit led to a steal and another single to put runners at the corners. Cavanaugh put her defense to work and it held.
Action ensued in the extra inning. With the international tiebreaker in place. A well-placed bunt through the right side allowed the speedy runner to score from second for Hillsdale.
Needing a response, Newport was placed on second. Claire Smeltzer intended to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but hustled out the hit to put runners on the corners for the Pioneers. Emily Sappington drove in the first run for Tusculum. Jimenez loaded the bases with no out on a bunt single. Freischmidt walked the game off with a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring the pinch runner Italia Kyle.
Cavanaugh started and threw seven shutout innings. She struck out four batters with six sprinkled throughout the contest. Sappington (4-1) picked up the decision in her one inning of relief. The unearned run belonged to her with a strikeout in four batters faced.
Game 2: Lees-McRae 6, Tusculum 1
The Bobcats (3-1) scored two runs in the first inning, added two in the fourth and tacked on single runs in the sixth and seventh while starting pitcher Grayson Buckner and reliever Megan Powell combined to hold the Pioneers to six hits.
Smeltzer finished 2-for-3 with the lone RBI for the Pioneers on a fifth-inning double, and Newport was 2-for-4 with a single and a double. Suits was 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored and Madison Watts was 1-for-3 at the plate for the Pioneers.
Two errors helped the Bobcats score two first-inning runs, which both scored on a two-out single by Buckner. Tusculum put two runners on base in the first inning against Buckner, but a pair of fly balls got the Bobcats out of trouble.
Tusculum starter Keylon Reynolds (0-1) wriggled out of a two-on, two-out jam in the second with a strikeout of Lees-McRae's Emma Jackson, but Buckner was able escape unscathed from a third-inning jam after the Pioneers put runners at second and third with nobody out.
The Bobcats tacked on two runs in the fourth on a two-run home run from Alana Parsons, and in the fifth, Reynolds stranded runners at first and third to keep the deficit at 4-0. The Pioneers scored their lone run in the bottom of the fifth as Suits walked with one out and scored on a two-out double just inside the left field line by Smeltzer.
Lees-McRae added a run in the sixth on a pinch-hit RBI single by Shelby Knaak, and the Bobcats would tack on an unearned run in the seventh on an error on a grounder hit by Powell.
Reynolds threw 5.1 innings and gave up seven hits and five runs (three earned) with five walks and three strikeouts. Makayla Bush tossed the final 1.2 innings in relief for the Pioneers and surrendered an unearned run on one hit, while striking out one batter.
Buckner (1-0), who went 3-for-4 at the plate for the Bobcats, earned the victory with 4.1 innings of work, giving up three hits and a run while striking out a pair and walking two. Powell closed the door for the save with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief, allowing three hits while fanning four.
