ANDERSON, S.C.- Despite jumping out to the early, 1-0, lead No. 2 Anderson University softball could not keep the momentum dropping the game to Lenoir-Rhyne, 3-2, in the South Atlantic Conference Championship series with the Bears claiming the SAC Tournament Title and earning the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament on Sunday morning at the AU Softball Complex.
The Trojans drew first blood after senior Ava Worthy drilled a solo home run over the left field fence in the top half of the second inning. The Bears answered back with two runs in the bottom of the third and added a lone run in the bottom of the fourth to claim the, 3-1, lead.
Anderson came alive again in the top of the sixth scoring a run on a two-out single up the middle by senior Hannah Whitaker, scoring sophomore Jenna Davis who singled to lead off the inning, 3-2.
Down to its final three outs, AU's Worthy reached on an error. However, LR's Madison Wilson was able to retire the next three batters to claim the, 3-2, victory.
AU's senior Laken Maxwell (17-8) pitched five innings, giving up seven hits and striking out three. Graduate Morgen Baker-Celis pitched the final inning, giving up no hits and striking out two.
The Trojans will wait to see if they finish in the top-eight in the NCAA Region rankings. The selection will take place on Monday.
Sophomore Jenna Davis led the inning off with a triple while junior Maddie Carpenter followed with a triple, sophomore Shelby Bandt singled and freshman Paige Vickery tripled to drive in the fifth run of the game. The sixth run came on a sacrifice fly to right field by senior Ava Worthy scoring Vickery.
Down to its final three outs and facing a 2-run deficit, Lenoir-Rhyne scored two runs in the top of the seventh on a home run by Madison Primm. LR was able to retire AU in its bottom half of the inning to force extra innings.
The Bears used three hits to score their seventh run of the game and take the lead once again. Anderson was able to get out of the jam stranding two runners.
AU senior Ava Worthy hit a one-out single with pinch hitter Kadence Barrick reaching on a single before the Bears were able to retire the side and win Game 1 of the SAC Championship Series.
Senior Laken Maxwell pitched 7.0 innings giving up nine hits, six runs while striking out seven. Graduate Morgen Baker-Celis suffered the loss (10-5) after tossing the final inning. Baker-Celis gave up three hits while striking out one.
SAC All-Tournament team will be released tomorrow afternoon with the SAC's Wealth Enhancement Group Elite 23 Award being announced at the conclusion of today's event.
The Elite 23 Award honors the student-athlete with the top cumulative grade-point average based on a minimum of 48 credit hours who is competing at the final site of each of the Conference's 23 team championship sports.
These awards are modeled after the NCAA's Elite 90 award, which is presented at each of the NCAA's 90 championships and the selection criteria for the SAC Elite 23 award is similar to that of the NCAA Elite 90 awards.
AU's Maxwell, with a GPA of 3.79 while studying Kinesiology with a minor in Chemistry was this year's winner.
Anderson and Lenoir-Rhyne square off for game two tomorrow. First-pitch is slated for 2 pm.
