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Shonna Penney and Leigh Beatenbough danced out of trouble in the circle and the Lee softball team put together two three-run innings to claim the GSC series victory over West Alabama with a 6-3 win on Saturday afternoon in game three from Butler Field.

The Lady Flames jumped on the Tigers early with three runs in the first inning. With two outs and the bases juiced Zoe Miller lifted a deep fly ball to center that ricocheted off the centerfielder's glove to give the Lady Flames an early 3-1 advantage.

Lee would tack on three more runs in the third inning with a two-out rally capped off by a two-run home run to deep left field from junior Sam Hill. The transfer from Highland Community College launched her first home run as a member of the Lady Flames.

"Sam is a really patient hitter and she's been playing well and seeing the ball well at the plate recently," said head coach Emily Russell. She picked us up on a day when we didn't have our best stuff as a team. Sometimes you have to grind out victories especially in this conference so I was proud of the way we overcame some adversity today and were able to finish off the victory.

The Tigers committed a crucial error and left 13 runners on base in the contest.

Leigh Beatenbough worked out of a bases loaded jam in the top fifth to keep the Lady Flames in the lead at 6-3 thanks to a tremendous running catch by left fielder Abby McKinnney. The sophomore darted back towards the fence and reach up over her head to snag the hard-hit liner.

Beatenbough tossed 2.2 innings of relief to earn the save. She allowed just two hits. Shonna Penney started and improved to 4-3 as she worked around seven hits and struck ouf three in 4.1 innings. The freshman allowed three runs, two earned and is now sporting a nifty 1.46 ERA on the season.

Stevie Baird and Kayla Louie had two hits and scored a run to lead the seven-hit attack for the Lady Flames. Bailey Church delivered a two-out RBI single in the third frame while Brooklynn Frazier scored a pair of runs. Moran tripled on a rocket up the box to lead off the third and is now leading the team with a .429 average and .714 slugging percentage.

Nicole Buccieri had two hits for the Tigers and Savannah Smathers came off the bench to deliver two hits and an RBI. Kameree Lay (1-1) started but did not make it out of the second inning. Lay allowed three runs but all were unearned. Andrea Edmonds was roughed up in her 1.2 innings as she gave up four hits and three runs. Nora Keehn settled things down tossing 3.1 scoreless frames in relief.

The win moves the Lady Flames, who are receiving votes in the latest Top 25 poll, to 11-6 overall and 4-2 in the GSC. The loss drops West Alabama to 5-12 and 2-4.

Lee will welcome Tusculum to town for a mid-week doubleheader on Wednesday at 2 and 4:30 p.m. before North Alabama rolls into Butler Field for a GSC showdown next weekend.