CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Lee University softball team split a doubleheader with Young Harris College on Wednesday night from Butler Field.
Lee dropped game one, 8-4, before taking the nightcap, 15-7.
"We fought really hard to salvage a split. We need to compete with consistently to get the results that this team is capable of," head coach Emily Russell said after the day.
In game one, Young Harris got the scoring started with a Hannah Carey two-run homer, and the Lady Flames cut the lead in half when Laney Harris scored on a wild pitch. Shay Bayreuther had a two-RBI single in the third but Kylie Bohl answered in the fourth hitting her first home run of the season to score Riley Goodridge and Javaria Smith.
The Mountain Lions responded with two runs of their own in the fifth taking advantage of two Lee errors, and tacked on two more in the seventh to claim the, 8-4 win.
Game two looked like it was going to start the same as the guests jumped out to a, 7-1, run advantage after an inning and a half.
Lee began to cut into the lead starting with a Harris double that scored a pair followed by a Smith two-base hit just two batters later to make it, 7-5.
Madison Barnett came to the circle in relief holding Young Harris scoreless in the third and the Lady Flames poured it on scoring six runs and never looked back as Bohl smashed the game-ending home run in the bottom of the fifth to force the run-rule, 15-7, victory.
Bohl paced the Lady Flames on offense going 4-7 with two home runs and five RBIs.
Harris finished game two, 3-3 with five RBIs and Smith wrapped up the contest 2-3 with five RBIs.
Barnett was credited with the win going 3.1 innings allowing just a pair of hits with three strikeouts in relief.
Lee is now 3-6 on the season while the Mountain Lions are 5-7.
Looking to the weekend Coach Russell said, "I feel like it was good to have some quality at bats heading into the weekend. UAH is always tough at their place, but I feel like we have really grown in the last 2 weeks. We have played a lot of softball and I know our best is ahead of us."
The Lady Flames will be back in action Saturday with their Gulf South Conference opener against The University of Alabama in Huntsville for a road doubleheader. The two teams wrap up the series on Sunday before Lee returns home February 25th against West Georgia.
