Monday, March 21, 2005

#11 SAINTS SPLIT WITH #17 LEE

Cleveland, Tenn. – Lee University 's softball team handed the Lady Saints of North Georgia College & State University (NGCSU) their first conference loss of the season Saturday afternoon at Butler Field. North Georgia (17-10, 5-1 SSAC) won the first game 4-1 and Lee (18-5, 6-2 SSAC) came back to win the finale 2-1.

Katie Rominger and Jill Webb led the way for the Lady Flames offense. Rominger three hits in five at bats with two walks and Webb had four hits on eight at bats.

Lee took an early 1-0 lead as Webb singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a single by Rominger and scored on another wild pitch.

North Georgia came back to post two consecutive two-run innings. Back-to-back RBI singles by Brooke Kesler and Krista Bess gave the Saints a 2-1 edge in the fourth inning.

NGCSU added to their one-run lead the following inning as Candace Shubert scored on a Lynsey Thompson single up the middle. A perfectly placed bunt sacrifice by Katie Thrasher brought in Thompson for the final run of the game.

Charli Duff gave up 11 hits and four runs in seven complete innings. Duff (7-3) struck out 11 and walked three. Beth Willis pitched a complete game five-hitter as she struck out 10 and walked six.

Lee struck first again in the second game as JaAndrea Hinton led off the second inning with a walk and moved to second on a Mandi Ensminger sacrifice bunt. Caryn Hill followed with an RBI single to bring Hinton around to score.

Kelly Golden added to the Lee run total in the third inning as she scored what turned out to be the game-winning run with her sixth home run of the season.

North Georgia quickly answered in the top of the fourth as Shubert reached on an error and scored on a two-out double by Annie Ball. The double was the first hit off of Lee pitcher Jessica Pike.

Pike (7-1) pitched her fifth complete game of the season and gave up one unearned run as she lowered her ERA to 0.14. She struck out 10 Saints and walked one.

Danielle Rainey took the loss as she went 4.1 innings and gave up seven hits, walked three and struck out four. Willis came in to pitch the final 1.2 innings and was touched for two hits as she struck out three.

Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score