BRISTOL, Tenn. – The Emory & Henry College Softball Team (1-1) opened the 2014 season with a doubleheader split against Virginia Intermont College (9-7) at Highland View Park. The Cobras took game one, 9-1, in six innings while the Wasps earned a 3-2 victory in the nightcap.
Game One – Virginia Intermont 9, Emory & Henry 1 (six innings)
VI got on the board with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. Katie Smith and Katelyn Mitchell both had RBI singles in the inning.
After three scoreless innings, the Cobras made it 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth. Smith led things off with a solo home run while Hannah Savedge had a homer of her own later in the frame.
Emory & Henry got on the board in the top of the sixth to make the score 4-1. Sophomore Hannah Bays (Abingdon, Va.) doubled to left field to get the Wasps going and scored after senior Martha Fluharty's (Halifax, N.C.) hit to right was too much for the fielder to handle.
Virginia Intermont scored five in the bottom of the sixth inning to satisfy the conditions of the Eight-Run Advantage Rule. Michalah Sacre hit a two-run home run to help her cause and Tamara Campbell plated two on a double to left field to highlight the inning.
Sacre picked up the win in the circle, scattering one run and six hits over six innings of work with 14 strikeouts. She was two-for-three at the plate with two runs and two RBI while Smith went three-for-four with three runs and two runs driven in.
Junior Brandy Bryant (Salem, Va.) took the loss, allowing four runs on six hits in the first five innings of the game.
Game Two – Emory & Henry 3, Virginia Intermont 2
Emory & Henry jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the top of the first inning. With two outs and the bases empty, Bays tagged an 0-1 pitch over the fence for the score.
VI responded with two runs in the bottom of the first. Sacre led things off with a single to right field and with two outs was driven home by Lindsey Wilkins. Mitchell got her second RBI of the day, plating Bass, who walked as the second batter of the inning.
The two teams battled through five innings of shutout softball with both defenses forcing runners to be left on base.
The Wasps gained the lead in the top of the seventh. With two outs and the bases loaded, senior Sylvia Robbins (Smithfield, Va.) singled to left field on a two-strike count to tie things up at two runs each. Senior Cortney Halsey (Independence, Va.) forced the pitcher to make a fielding error on the next at bat and Emory & Henry took a 3-2 lead.
The Cobras got a one-out double from Campbell in the bottom of the second but sophomore pitcher Taylor Banner (Castlewood, Va.) handled the final two batters of the game as E&H claimed the victory.
Emory & Henry only had five hits in the game but they came when it mattered with Robbins finding an open spot to tie the game in the seventh. Banner pitched a complete-game gem, scattering seven hits and five strikeouts over seven innings of work allowing just two runs and four walks.
Lauren Smith suffered the loss for VI, allowing two runs on three hits in just 1.2 innings pitched. Wilkens started the game and struck out five in just over five innings, going two-for-four at the plate with a RBI to help herself.
Emory & Henry will host Southern Virginia University on Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., in its first home doubleheader of the season.
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