Maryville, TN – For the second straight outing, the Piedmont Lady Lion softball team split a USA South doubleheader, this time on the road against Maryville. The Lady Lions took game one 7-0 but the Scots got a shutout of their own in the second game 8-0.
The split put Piedmont at 4th in the conference standings with 10 USA South contests remaining on the Lady Lions’ schedule.
Game 1: Piedmont 7, Maryville 0
Building off a split against N.C. Wesleyan and two players earning USA South honors for their performances, the Lady Lions piled it on in game one with an impressive 7-0 victory over Maryville. The story of the game was Sarah Walker who pitched a complete game moving her record to 9-4 this season.
Walker gave up just three hits in the shutout, walking only one batter and striking out three. The Scots also stayed with one pitcher thoughout but Lexie Randolph took the loss in her complete game outing giving up 11 hits and seven runs.
It was a pitcher’s duel through the first three innings but in the top of the fourth, Piedmont was rolling as they put up six runs to take a 6-0 lead before tacking on a single run in the sixth for good measure.
To no surprise it was Abby Smith who got the ball rolling with a lead-off single in the sixth inning and managed to make her way to third before Jessica Bagwell’s at-bat led to another single, this time to left field and scoring Smith to allow the Lady Lions to take the lead.
That was the only run Piedmont would score until a two-out rally later in the inning. Whitney Wolfe, the reigning USA South Player of the Week, singled and advanced to second on the throw scoring two as Allison Vaughn and Allyson Gentry scored. Both Vaughn and Gentry had reached with singles as well.
One batter later with Abby Atkinson at the plate, it was happening all over as she singled and advanced to second on the throw scoring Wolfe and Lauren Bearden to make it 5-0 PC. The other run in the inning came off Laura Carter reaching on a fielding error and allowing Atkinson to score.
In the sixth inning, Vaughn doubled to lead-off and later scored after Atkinson hit a sac bunt to score her and make it a 7-0 Piedmont lead. Atkinson ended the game 1-for-3 with a run scored and three RBI while Jessica Bagwell was 3-for-4 with an RBI.
Game 2: Maryville 8, Piedmont 0
Game two was a different story as the Lady Lions were unable to get the bats going with only one hit in the five inning game while Maryville managed 13 against a total of three Piedmont pitchers to win 8-0. Sarah Walker took her second decision of the day with the loss moving her record to 9-5.
Walker started the second contest and went 3.2 innings giving up eight hits and five runs. She was followed by Avery Migues and eventually Lauren Bearden stepped in to finish the contest.
The Scots were on the board in the bottom of the second pushing across two runs on three hits and an error but also stranded a pair of runners in the inning. They added four more in the bottom of the fourth and forced a run-rule in the fifth inning scoring the required two runs to end the contest early.
Jessica Bagwell led the way for Piedmont as she was 1-for-1 at the plate with a walk as she recorded the only hit of the game for the Lady Lions.
Piedmont is now 11-7 overall and 8-6 in league play with a total of 10 USA South contests remaining. The next action for the Lady Lions will be this weekend as they play host to Huntingdon College on Saturday afternoon for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
As always, home action will be provided on the Mane Event Broadcasting Network as well as live stats provided by the Athletic Communications office.
