VALDOSTA, Ga. - Valdosta State dropped fell 8-6 to Shorter in the day's first game, but rebounded to keep its season alive by defeating Alabama Huntsville 5-2 in the night cap of the NCAA Division II Softball South Region 1 Tournament Saturday afternoon at Steel's Diamond.
Home runs did Valdosta State (48-8) in against Shorter (38-15) as the Lady Hawks hit four roundtrippers in the game, the first coming in the top of the first inning. Niki Cook reached via an error to open the contest and scored two batters later when Kendall Johnson hit a ball to left field for a 2-0 SU lead.
Valdosta State got a run back in the bottom of the first when
Jaime Phillips doubled and moved to third on a wild pitch. The next batter,
Fran Johnson, reached on a wild pitch on a swinging third strike and an throwing error to first on the play allowed Phillips to race home to cut the Blazer deficit to 2-1.
The Lady Hawks struck for two more home runs in the second inning as Paige Rowland and Hannan Draper each homered, but Phillips hit her 17th homer of the year in the bottom of the inning, with
Brittany Smith and
Halie Imler on base to knot the game at 4-4.
Valdosta State scored two more runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 6-4 advantage. Imler singled to open the inning and moved to second on a passed ball before a Phillips ground out put her on third. Johnson followed with a single that drove her home andJohnson stole second before scoring on a
Courtney Albritton single.
Shorter took advantage of a VSU error in the fifth inning to score two unearned runs and plated the winning runs in the top of the seventh when Johnson hit her second homer of the game with Meaghan Meacham on first.
Huntrye Elling took the loss for Valdosta State and fell to 14-2 on the season as she allowed three hits and four runs, only two earned, in 5.0 innings. Phillips was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three driven in to lead VSU offensively while Imler finished 2-for-2 with two runs scored.
After being victimized by the home run in the first game, the Blazers used the long ball to win game two as all five of their runs came on roundtrippers. Johnson started the homer parade in the top of the first as she hit a ball out to center and, after UAH (40-16) scored an unearned run in the bottom of the first, scored the second VSU run of the game in the third when
Kiley Rusen hit a home run to left-center that put Valdosta State up 3-1.
The Chargers added another unearned run in the bottom of the fourth, but Johnson hit her second roundtripper of the game in the top of the fifth and
Heather Robinson added a solo shot in the seventh to close out the scoring.
Maci Fletcher turned in a dominating performance on the mound for Valdosta State as she surrendered just five hits and two unearned runs in 6.0 innings. After Alabama Huntsville tallied two hits to open the bottom of the seventh inning, Caitlyn Cahoun relieved Fletcher and recorded the final three outs for her first save of the season.
Johnson finished the nightcap 3-for-3 at the plate with three runs scored and two driven in while Rusen was 3-for-4 with two RBI.
Valdsota State and Shorter will play in the South Region Tournament championship on Sunday, with action beginning at 1:00 p.m. Valdosta State will have to defeat the Lady Hawks twice to advance to next weekend's NCAA Division II South Super Region Tournament while Shorter has to win just one game to advance. If the Blazers win the first game of the day, the two teams will meet again at 3:30 p.m.
