Lady Eagles Thump Lenoir-Rhyne 10-1, Advance in SAC Tournament
April 24, 2009
HICKORY, N.C. -- Sixth-seeded Carson-Newman advanced to the winner's bracket final of the 2009 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Softball Tournament with a 10-1 victory over second-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne Friday afternoon at Bears Field.
With the win, C-N (27-15) advances to Saturday's winner's bracket final and will face the winner of the No. 5 Catawba/No. 1 Wingate matchup at 2:30 p.m. Lenoir-Rhyne (35-10) will meet the loser of the Catawba/Wingatet matchup Friday at 6:30 p.m.
The Lady Eagles pounded out 12 hits on the day and received another solid performance from starting hurler Stephanie Templeton (8-2) (Ringgold, Ga.). The junior right-hander surrendered one run on seven hits and had one strikeout in seven innings of work to earn the win. Templeton has allowed just one run on 10 hits in 14 innings during the tournament.
Leah Price (Spring City, Tenn.) went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs to lead the Lady Eagles. Templeton tallied two hits, including a home run, while Jessie Howard (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Amber Palmer (Kennesaw, Ga.) also had two hits apiece. Templeton drove in three runs on the day, while Howard had two RBIs.
Lenoir-Rhyne collected seven hits but struggled to drive in runners as it left the bases loaded in the first inning and stranded nine runners for the game. Sarah Atkins (Newport News, Va.) led the way with a 2-for-3 effort for the Bears.
Bears' starting pitcher Dawon Millwood (Hixson, Tenn.) (17-2) was tagged with the loss after surrendering three runs on three hits in two innings in the circle. Millwood also had three strikeouts.
The Lady Eagles grabbed a 2-0 in the top of the first inning on a two-run blast by Templeton.
Howard delivered a RBI triple in the top of the second inning to push C-N's lead to 3-0.
C-N added another run in the top of the third to take a 4-0 advantage on a run-scoring single by Mary Shealy (Clinton, S.C.), but this time the Bears answered in the home half of the inning.
Carlee Carpenter (Newton, N.C.) reached on a fielder's choice to start the third inning and later scored on a C-N fielding error to pull Lennoir-Rhyne to within 4-1.
However, the Bears were unable to get any closer, as the Lady Eagles added a run in the fifth on a Price single and erupted for five runs in the top of the seventh to put the game out of reach. Price, Howard, Whitney Durham (Rossville, Ga.) and Templeton each drove home a run for the Lady Eagles in the seventh.
