CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Lee University survived a late rally by West Alabama to defeat the Tigers 8-4 in Gulf South Conference Softball action at Butler Field on Sunday. The Flames win the series after splitting a double-header with UWA on Saturday.
Lee improves to 16-22-1 and 4-18-1 in the GSC, while West Alabama falls to 14-24 and 6-18.
The Flames went ahead 2-0 in the second inning on a solo home run by Nia Raye Ceasar and an RBI single by Lexie Dean. A hit-by-pitch in the top of the third with the bases loaded put UWA on the board for the first time.
After four runs on three doubles and a single for Lee in the fourth, the Tiger bats started to show life with two hits leading to one run in the top of the fifth.
Audrey Diekmann posted an RBI single to cut the Flames lead to 6-2.
As Lee added two more runs on two more doubles in the bottom of the sixth, a late rally by UWA would fall short scoring only two runs on two hits and leaving two runners on base.
Lee finished with 14 hits and committed two errors as the Tiger defense had no errors. Ceasar led the Flames 3-for-4 at the plate, including two doubles, three RBI and three runs. Stevie Baird also tallied doubles with two RBI. Diekmann finished 1-for-2 at the plate for the Tigers.
"Yesterday when we left, we said we needed to do two things: take care of the softball and get timely hits," said UWA head coach
Will Atkinson. "We took care of the softball today with an error-free game, but we just didn't have the timely hits. We had the bases loaded twice, and all we got was one hit and a sacrifice fly. If we don't give up four runs on five hits in the fourth, it's a tied ballgame after seven."
Angie Hughes (7-11) pitched through all seven innings to take the win in the circle. She struck out 11 batters and walked seven.
Ashley Stassin (4-4) was the first of four Tiger pitchers to see action. She took the loss allowing two runs on six hits through three innings.
"I'm really proud of the way some of our young players are progressing," Atkinson said.
"
Ashlend Rodriguez had a fantastic defensive weekend;
Jenna Goldsmith was asked to play both left and right field and had one of her better defensive performances she's had all year. With the youth of this team, we are going to have to deal with a few growing pains along the way, but I'm really excited to see them continue to grow as young players throughout this season."
West Alabama Softball will remain on the road to take on Tuskegee in a non-conference double-header on Wednesday. First pitch for game one is set for 1 p.m.
