Lions Drop A Pair to Carson-Newman

JEFFERSON CITY, TENN. – The Mars Hill softball team dropped both games of a doubleheader to league-leading Carson-Newman on Monday, March 21. The Lions fell by scores of 6-1 and 11-3.

Madelyn Furr led the offense on the afternoon, collecting three hits in six at-bats over the two games. Erin Vickery was the only other Lion with multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with a RBI. Ragan Broome tallied a run batted in during game two.

GAME ONE

The Lions' starting pitcher Shelby Culler ran into first inning difficulties. After forcing the leadoff batter to lazily fly out to left, Culler gave up a base hit through the left side followed by back-to-back free passes to load the bases. Lindsay Dean laced a double to right center to give the Eagles the early 2-0 advantage. C-N added three more in the inning with the big blow coming off the bat of Cheyenne Boles, who blasted a two-run shot to left field to stake the home team to a 5-0 lead after one.

The Eagles plated another run in the bottom of the second following an infield single that eventually came around to score on a wild pitch.

The Lions threatened in the top of the fourth, putting runners on the corners with two outs, but could not get the clutch two-out knock to score their first run. Vickery collected the first hit of the contest for Mars Hill to initiate the threat.

MHU was finally able to scratch a run across in the top of the seventh as Vickery led the inning off with her fourth bomb of the year, clearing the left field wall. That would be the highlight of the game for the Blue and Gold as they fell in game one, 6-1.

Culler took the loss for Mars Hill, going one inning and giving up five runs on four hits. She falls to 3-2 on the year.  Jamie Booze did a fantastic job in relief for the Lions in the first game, allowing only a single run while scattering four hits and punching out three.

GAME TWO

The Lions looked poised to push across a first inning run in game two following a one-out triple from Furr, but she was stranded there to preserve the scoreless game.

Carson-Newman took advantage of the missed opportunity in the home-half of the first, taking a 2-0 lead on a homerun to right center by Elayna Siebert. Following the dinger, three consecutive hits plated another run for the Eagles, posting the home team to a 3-0 lead after one.

Mars Hill opened the second frame with a walk by Ellen Tillman followed by a double to left field by Ragan Broome that put runners on second and third with no out. Tillman would cross the plate on a wild pitch and Broome moved to third. However, she would be left there as the next three batters struck out.

C-N tacked on four more runs in the bottom of two. Katie Pritchett collected two RBIs with a double to left center and came around to score on a long ball off the bat of Lindsay Dean.

The Lions were able to scratch two runs in the top of the third. With the bases chucked, a wild pitch brought home Furr and Broome lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to bring home Vickery and cut the deficit to 7-3.

That would be as close as the game would get as the Eagles scored four times in the fourth capped off by a two-run double from Pritchett and Dean's second two-run homerun of the game. At that point the score was 11-3 and the Lions failed to score in the top of the fifth, giving the Eagles the mercy rule win.

The Lions are now 7-14 overall and 1-3 in the South Atlantic Conference while Carson-Newman improves to 18-8 overall and 4-0 within the SAC.

Sydney Elkin suffered the defeat in game two, dropping her record to 4-7. In her two innings of work she gave up nine hits and allowed seven runs to go along with two strikeouts.

The Lions will return to action on Friday, March 25 as they welcome conference rival Wingate to Ponder Field for a doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.