Virginia Wesleyan in Drivers’ Seat from Long Second Day of ODAC Softball

SALEM, Va. --- Nearly five hours of rain delays on Friday forced a heavy schedule on Saturday as ODAC teams competed thru eight games at the 2014 ODAC Softball Tournament at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Va.  Virginia Wesleyan College is in the drivers’ seat as the Marlins have two chances to secure one more win and a second straight ODAC title, which would mark the eighth in program history and tie Roanoke College for tops in the league all-time.

Interactive Bracket

Looking to join the VWC in the first of two possible championship games (due to double-elimination format) are Guilford College and Randolph-Macon College.  The Quakers won their opening game on Saturday in the winners’ bracket, but fell to Virginia Wesleyan to drop down to the losers’ bracket.  One more GC win will give it a shot at VWC for a second and possibly third time on Sunday.

Randolph-Macon played three times in Saturday.  The Yellow Jackets lost their first conference to VWC, but rattled off wins over Randolph College and Lynchburg College to setup a matchup with Guilford on Sunday morning.

Below is a rundown of Saturday’s results with a look ahead to Sunday.

SATURDAY’S RESULTS

Game 5 (elimination game): #5 Eastern Mennonite University def. #4 Bridgewater College, 4-3 (Box)
Bridgewater jumped out to an early lead with three runs in the bottom of the first, but a pair by EMU in the third and fifth innings provided the Royals with the winning margin and eliminated BC from the tournament with this loss coupled with one from Friday.  This would also prove to be the final collegiate game for BC head coach Donnie Fulk, who announced his retirement prior to the start of the season.

Game 6 (elimination game): #3 Randolph College def. #7 Emory & Henry College, 2-0 (Box)
Hannah Cook provided the offense and Logan Carter fired a four-hit shutout as Randolph eliminated Emory & Henry from the 2014 field.  Cook belted a two-run double in the third inning to bring around the game’s only runs.  Carter allowed only five baserunners as she walked one while fanning three in seven complete innings.

Game 7: #1 Virginia Wesleyan College def. #4 Randolph-Macon College, 8-1 (Box)
Virginia Wesleyan hammered out 19 hits as all nine starting batters had at least one knock in posting the Marlins’ second win of the tournament.  Tori Higginbotham went 4-for-5 with a RBI, two runs scored and a pair of stolen bases.  Kristina Karagiorgis struck out eight batters, including five of the first nine outs of the game, as she moved to 20-4 on the year.

Game 8: #6 Guilford College def. #2 Lynchburg College, 9-0 (6 inn.) (Box)
Marty Wilcox went 3-for-4 with a triple, a homer and three RBI to lead the Quakers to a shortened win in the winners’ bracket.  Rachel Howard also left the yard in addition to driving in a pair of runs.  Maggie Shaffer gave up just four hits with a walk and two strikeouts in pitching six shutout innings.

Game 9 (elimination game): #2 Lynchburg def. #5 Eastern Mennonite, 8-5 (Box)
Amber Ingram threw four solid innings for the win and drove in four runs with a double at the dish to keep the Hornets alive in the tournament while eliminating EMU from further play.  Hope Johnson worked the final three frames for the save as LC scored four times in the top of the seventh to bust open what was a one-run game.

Game 10 (elimination game): #4 Randolph-Macon def. #4 Randolph, 11-7 (Box)
Sharese Jarvis and Katie Woody combined for four hits and seven RBI as R-MC posted seven runs over the third and fourth innings to eliminate the WildCats from the tournament.  Sam Moore and Carolyn Gilbertson each homered for the Jackets, with Moore’s blast marking her ODAC-best 11th of the season.  Randolph’s season came to a close after registering a program record 27 overall victories in 2014.

Game 11: #1 Virginia Wesleyan def. #6 Guilford, 9-0 (6 inn.) (Box)
MacKenzie Creech took to the circle for the first time in the tournament and promptly threw six shutout frames to put the Marlins back in the ODAC title game.  She scattered six hits and fanned two along the way.  Kayla Dost and Season Daily each collected three hits and combined for six RBI.  Higginbotham went 2-for-2 with two RBI and stolen base.  She’s now 8-for-9 in the tournament.

Game 12 (elimination game): #4 Randolph-Macon def. #2 Lynchburg, 4-2 (Box)
Kelsey McLaughlin went the distance for R-MC as she gave up two runs on six hits with three punchouts in the Yellow Jackets win, putting them with one victory of a title game appearance.  The bottom of R-MC’s carried the offensive load as batters 6-thru-9 went 6-for-11 with four RBI.