Softball Goes 3-3 For Weekend At Ringor Tourney

AIKEN, SC – The SMC Lady Pioneers kicked off their season over the weekend with a 2nd place finish in the silver bracket of Aiken Tech's Ringor Tournament and a 3-3 record for the event.

The Lady Pioneers started the weekend off with a 5-3 loss to Wallace State – Hanceville, ranked No. 2 nationally, that ended in an eight-inning international tiebreaker.

Freshman Emily Kirby was the first on base with a third-inning error, with freshman infielder Hayley Register following with a single up the middle.

Sophomore Rebecca Harris loaded the bases on a bunt single; and sophomore Jackie Slawson followed with an up-the-middle base hit to bring in Kirby.  Freshman Jena Westmoreland drove in Register on a sharp single, then sophomore Dena Messer coaxed a bases-loaded walk to bring the score to 3-0.

Wallace State got out of the jam with a couple strikeouts, and then tied the game in the bottom of the third with four hits off freshman starting pitcher Ashira Dobison.

After freshman Caroline Pastre came on to relieve Dobison, neither team scored again until Wallace State pushed across three runs in the top of the eighth inning to win 5-3.

 "Wallace State does a lot of things well, but we went toe-to-toe with the No. 2 team in the country," said head coach Thad Fox.

In game two of Friday's action , the Lady Pioneers fell 3-4 to Young Harris.

SMC got on the board quickly with a right-center homerun by freshman Leah Babson. But Young Harris tied it up off starting sophomore pitcher Dana Smith in the first inning.

A second-inning single by sophomore Crystal Smith put the Lady Pioneers ahead, who later came around to score when Slawson singled to left field. With two more runs off Dana Smith, SMC jumped right back in the game and tied it up 3-3 with sophomore Bailey Edwards driving in Register.

Young Harris took the lead in the 6th inning and held off another rally by the Pioneers. Dobison took the loss in relief.

"Our bats got going in game two, but we just didn't string enough hits together to break the game open. We had our chances and then made a couple mistakes on the defensive end,"  said Fox.

SMC opened up Saturday's play with an 8-3 win over USC Salkahatchie.

Salkahatchie quickly jumped out front with extra outs off of defensive errors, making SMC pay with a couple hits to take the lead 3-0.

SMC bounced right back with six runs in the top of the second. Hits by Messer, Braxton, Deana Ratliff, along with RBI singles from Slawson, freshman Jazmine Holliday, and freshman Brittany Phillips helped secure the win.

Salkahatchie couldn't muster any more off of SMC's pitching staff of Pastre, Dobison, or Britni Ward, who was credited with the win.

"Britni threw well and our bats got hot early. We also had strong performances from Holliday, Messer, and Slawson. We were much better at the plate and defensively, and we need to keep this type of performance up. As a whole in our first three games, we were able to throw four pitchers to gain experience as well as play a lot of different combinations. We're still trying to get into game shape and find out what we need to improve on," said Fox.

SMC finished off Saturday with a 4-3 win over Chattahoochee Valley CC.

The Lady Pioneers pushed both of their Sunday games to eight-inning tiebreakers.

The first game of the day was a 2-1 win over Pitt CC which put the Pioneers in the silver bracket championship game against Georgia Military College.

Pastre picked up another win for the weekend, this time over Pitt, by striking out nine batters and allowing only two hits. Holliday drove in the winning run with a base hit to left field.

But the Lady Pioneers fell 3-4 to Georgia Military in the championship game.

Slawson nailed two hits against Georgia Military. In the seventh inning, Ratliff led off with a single and scored on a Slawson double. Crystal Smith drove Slawson in for the lead to send the game into extra innings.

The Lady Pioneers ended the tournament  2-0 in Region X, 3-3 overall. They next play Walters State on the road Tuesday in Morristown, TN.

Spartanburg Methodist College is in its 99th year of providing quality education to students in a Christian environment. More than 90 percent of SMC graduates continue their education at other institutions of higher learning.

For more information contact sports information director Susie Williams at (864) 587-4008.