KINGSPORT, Tenn. – Softball kept its season alive with a run-rule victory of their own Thursday afternoon against eighth-seeded Pikeville (20-26). The 10-2 victory lets the Bears advance to day two of the Mid-South Conference Tournament where they will meet the loser of second-seeded Campbellsville and sixth-seeded Cumberland. The Bears' next game will take place at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
Playing as the away team after a flip of the coin, the Bears (25-15) got to work right away in the top of the first. Ericka Leighty led off the game with a walk and was bunted into scoring position by Kelsey Jenkins. A single by Kirsti Yates would then put runners on the corners before SSU completed a double steal to go up 1-0. A triple from Holly Brabson would then make it 2-0 before Pikeville even came to bat.
SSU starter Allie Chapman would retire Pikeville in order in the first and hold Pikeville off the board in the second inning despite two singles to start things off. The final out of the inning came as Leighty gunned down a runner at the plate from right field trying to score on a sacrifice fly to preserve the 2-0 lead heading to the third.
A pair of two-run home runs in the top of the third would begin to distance SSU from Pikeville. Leighty led off the third with a double before Yates hit her eighth home run of the season over the centerfield fence. Abbey Barrett would then single with two outs before Hannah Dittoe took her pitch to nearly the same location as Yates' long ball earlier in the inning, making the score 6-0 after the top of the third.
Pikeville would put runners on via singles in the third, fourth and fifth innings; however, Chapman would get a line-out to Yates to double off the runner in the third while stranding the base runners in the fourth and fifth.
SSU would then strike for four more in the top of the sixth. Chapman helped her own cause in the circle as she hit her second home run of the season, and her career, over the right field fence to make it 7-0. Leighty would walk in the next at-bat while Jenkins and Yates would single to bring home the eighth run of the game. A passed ball would move those runners up to second and third while Barrett would then single with one out to make it 10-0 heading to the bottom of the sixth.
Pikeville would not go down without putting up a battle and getting four straight hits, three singles and a double, to score a pair of runs before Shawnee State turned a double play to get out of the inning and advance via the run-rule victory in six innings.
Chapman picked up the win to improve to 13-6 on the season. She went the full six innings and allowed nine hits and two runs. Through the first five innings, she had allowed just five hits before the last-second desperation from Pikeville. Yates finished with three hits and three RBI to pace the Bears' offense while Barrett also had a pair of hits and two RBI.
