No. 4 Seed Softball Run Rules Point in Opening Game of AAC Tournament

Kingsport, Tenn.- The softball team began play in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament on Wednesday. The team entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed and faced the fifth-seeded Point University Lady Skyhawks in the opening round. 

The first inning was a picture-perfect inning for the Lady Bulldogs. Cheyenne Strong struck out the first three batters Point sent out in the top of the first. The offense exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the first inning.  

Caroline Moore started with a bunt single, moving to second on a wild pitch. Destiny Painter got on base with a single before moving to third on a Destiny Painter single. Moore scored on Emily Mikkola's single, giving the team the first lead of the game. A fielder's choice on Taylor Penning's at-bat loaded the bases. Courtney Sneed took two of the runners off the bases with her single scoring Painter and Mikkola. After a sacrifice bunt by Malyssa Jeter advanced each runner a base, a wild pitch gave Penning the space to score and Sneed the time to move to third. Loryn Sherwood hit a single to score Sneed, making the score 5-0. The inning kept going as Hallie DeArman hit a single to left field, moving Sherwood to second. A double by Mackenzie Baldwin brought the seventh run of the inning in Sherwood, and a single by Painter gave the team a 7-0 lead as DeArman scored.  

The game came to an end in the fifth inning. Sherwood began the inning with a single and an error on DeArman's at-bat moved pinch-runner Emma Clevinger to third. An error on Baldwin's at-bat allowed Clevinger to cross home plate and force the game to end due to the run rule, giving the team an 8-0 win in five innings. 

Baldwin and Sneed both had two RBIs in the win. Strong finished with 11 strikeouts.  

The team moves on to the quarterfinals and will face the winner of the No. 1 seed Reinhardt University and No. 8 seed Milligan University on Thursday at 3:00 p.m.