CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Lee University softball team earned it first double header sweep of the season on a cold and damp Saturday afternoon at Butler field. It took extra innings, but the Lady Flames earned their first win of the season over Newberry College 8-7 in game one. They then followed that up with a 10-2 game that ended early in five innings in the night cap. With the two wins, Lee improved it record to 2-5 on the season.
GAME 1 (Lee 8, Newberry 7)
Newberry struck early in the first game scoring a run from Amber Dalfonso. Lee had a hit in the first, a walk in the second, and a double in the fourth but could not take advantage of the base runners. Newberry couldn't get anything going as well in innings two through four.
In the top of the fifth, the Wolves broke the game open. They scored five runs on three hits and took advantage of a Lee error to make it a 6-0 lead. The Lady Flames got two runs back in the bottom half of the fifth. Annalyn Ormsby led off the frame with a single. Laney Harris drove her in two batters later. Then Harris scored on an RBI from Javaria Smith to make it 6-2. Newberry went down in order in the sixth and Lee got two hits but couldn't score. In the seventh, the Wolves got a hit but that's it. Harris led the bottom of the seventh off with a single, that was followed by a single from Alexa Scalzo. Smith followed that up with a single that had two runs batted in.
Newberry changed pitchers and Sidney Lee got a hit immediately. Rylie Goodridge followed that with a single to score Smith. Kylie Bohl then hit a double to score Goodridge and tie the game. Newberry made another pitching change and got two strikeouts from Lindsey Foster to end the inning.
In the top of the eighth inning, Vanessa Wilson was placed on second base for the international tie breaker and came in to score on a sacrifice fly from Reagan Smith. Lee answered in the bottom of the eighth when Ormsby scored on a sac fly from Harris. In the ninth inning, Lee allowed a hot but didn't allow a run. Then the Lady Flames won it in the bottom of the ninth when Scalzo was brought home by Lee on a walk-off single.
Olivia Tyson earned the win in game one. She threw two innings in relief and gave up one unearned run and only allowed one hit. Madison Barnett started the game and went four innings and gave up one run on three hits while striking out five. Alaina Watson in relief went three inning, gave up five runs on four hits.
Harris was 2-for-5 from the plate with two runs scored and two RBI. Smith add three RBI on three hits and Ormsby scored three times in the win.
GAME 2 (Lee 10, Newberry 2)
The Lady Flames came out of the gates quickly in the first inning. Harris was hit by a pitch, Scalzo was walked, Smith was walked and Lee was walked to bring in the first run of the game. After a pitching change, Goodridge hit a single to bring in a second run. Ana Macha and Ormsby each had an RBI single in the first inning and the Lady Flames led 4-0 after the first inning.
Lee added four more runs in the second inning. Scazlo had a double to lead it off. That was followed by a walk for Lee. Goodridge was also walked. Bohl then hit a sacrifice fly to bring Scalzo home. Macha hit a single to load the bases. Ormsby then hit a double to the left field fence to clear the bases and Lee led 8-0 after two innings of play.
Both teams got base runners on in the third and fourth but left them stranded. When the fifth came around, the rain began to fall. Newberry used a single, double, and three walks to score two runs and make it 8-2. Then in the bottom of the fifth, Sidney Lee had a single as did Goodridge, Bohl was walked to load the bases. Pinch hitter Sydney Piattoni was walked to score a run and then Ormsby was walked for her fifth RBI of the game to score Goodridge and that ended the game early.
Freshman starter Katie Willoughby earned her first career win going four and one-third innings giving up two runs on three hits. Natalie Pruitt in relief, went two-thirds of an inning and struck out two batters.
Ormsby in the win was two-for three from the plate with a walk and drive in five runs. Scalzo was three-for-four with two runs. Lee added three RBI as well.
Head Coach Emily Russell was pleased with the effort on the day. "The way we fought back in game one was huge today. The team has been fighting all season long and finally put it all together today. We had much better pitching in this series. We got our bats going as well. We had been to defensive with our hitting and today we got hard contact at the plate. Super excited that the team fought through and didn't let what else has happened so far this season affect us at all."
The Lady Flames will take on Young Harris with a double header on Wednesday, February 15 beginning at 2 PM at Butler Field in Cleveland.
