GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Michelle Miller went 2-for-4 with three RBI in the night-cap as the Tusculum softball team split a non-conference doubleheader with visiting Southern Wesleyan Saturday afternoon at Red Edmonds Field.
Lizzie Fela belted two home runs and drove in four RBI as the Warriors won the first game 4-2. Tusculum's bats came alive as the Pioneers posted 14 hits as TC won the game two 9-1 in five innings.
The Pioneers (11-9) will host Limestone College on Monday afternoon for a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m.
Game 1: Southern Wesleyan 4, Tusculum 2
Fela accounted for all of the run production in the opener as she clubbed her third and fourth home runs of the season in a 4-2 win over the Pioneers.
Tusculum jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Sammie West scored on a Taylor Johnson sacrifice fly. The Warriors tied the score when Fela led off the second inning with a solo blast to left field.
The score remained deadlocked until the top of the fifth when Becca White and Sara Sweatt led off with back-to-back singles. Two outs later, Fela lined a screaming three-run homer to dead center for a 4-1 SWU lead.
Tusculum scratched out a run in the bottom of the fifth when Rachel Wisner reached on a SWU error and later scored on Michelle Miller's pinch-hit sacrifice fly. But that would be as close as the Pioneers would get as SWU starter Josie Edwards allowed a two-out walk in the seventh before securing her first win of the year with a ground out to end the game.
Edwards (1-3) allowed two hits, two unearned runs, five walks and four strikeouts. TC starter Eliza Davis (1-1) suffered the loss as she went the distance.
Game 2: Tusculum 9, Southern Wesleyan 1 (5 Innings)
Tusculum jumped out to a 5-0 lead and led wire-to-wire to win the second game 9-1 in five innings.
West led the Pioneers hit barrage with her 3-for-4 effort with two runs scored and two RBI. Miller added two hits, while Emily Hester, Taylor Johnson and Rachel Wisener also had two hits each.
Tusculum scored a run in the bottom of the first when Miller tripled to left field and came into score on Hester's squeeze bunt for a 1-0 advantage. Miller came through again in the second when Wisner, West and Taylor Battle all reached on singles to load the bases. Miller lined a three-run double to the gap in left center to clear the bags for a 4-0 TC lead. Miller came into score on a two-out fielding error as the Pioneers led by five (5-0).
SWU answered with a run in the third, but Tusculum responded with two more in the bottom of the frame thanks to a RBI single by West and a RBI infield hit off the bat of Hester. TC completed the run-rule in the fifth when Battle led off with a triple and scored on a West RBI hit. West stole second and later moved to third on a wild pitch. Johnson ended the game with a single up the middle to bring home West with the deciding run.
Tusculum starter Taylor Plemons (6-4) scattered three hits in her five innings of work as he allowed an unearned run, walked one and struck out four.
