HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Wingate (32-15) jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and then powered through to the finish to knock Carson-Newman (30-21) from the South Atlantic Conference Softball Championship 5-1 Friday evening at Byerly Park.
The Bulldogs cranked two home runs to use the long ball to power past Carson-Newman. The Eagles got their lone run of the day on a Katie Pritchett bomb.
Both the Eagles and Bulldogs each had six hits, and both left five runners stranded on base.
Wingate got the scoring started in the first inning when catcher Taylor Laskey yanked a bomb to right field. The solo shot put Wingate up 1-0.
The Bulldogs would add a couple more runs in the second inning. Melenna Helms knocked a bases loaded single to center field to score one, then Naomi Sapp drove in another with a base hit to right to Wingate in front 3-0.
Carson-Newman finally got on the board in the fourth when Katie Pritchett (Ringgold, Ga.) sent a ball to deep centerfield that cleared not only the fence, but the road behind the field, and the fence of the field beyond the center field wall. The monster shot brought Carson-Newman within a pair.
Misty Doran quickly took away the advantage from that homer with a two-run bomb to left that put the Bulldogs ahead by four, 5-1 in the fifth.
Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) tallied a multi-hit day in the final game of her Carson-Newman career.
Misty Doran went 1-for-4 with a pair of RBI. No one from Wingate had a multi-hit performance.
Stacey Houser collected the win for the Bulldogs. She improved to 20-12 with the win. She scattered six hits with two walks and two strikeouts.
Allison Webster (Charlestown, Ind.) took the loss for the Eagles to fall to 20-12. She walked four and struck out two.
The Eagles finish the year with an 18th straight 30-win season. For offseason updates on Carson-Newman softball, check cneagles.com routinely and follow @CNathletics on Twitter.
