CLEVELAND, Tenn. -The Lee University softball team earned a double header split with the University of Montevallo on Friday afternoon. The Lady Flames earned a 5-4 victory in game one. An early base clearing triple from Laney Harris gave the Lady Flames the lead in game one which propelled the Lady Flames to a lead. Montevallo would rebound in game two defeating Lee 16-8. Lee is now 10-30 on the season and 5-16 in Gulf South Conference play.
Game 1
The Lady Flames struck first with a bases clearing triple from Harris to give the Lady Flames the lead. Montevallo answered in the top of the second with a Shelbee Sloan single which scored a run for UM.
Lee kept the pressure going in the bottom of the second inning when Annalyn Ormsby brought Alesandra Razo home with a groundout. The Lady Flames got their final run of the game in the fourth when Alexa Scalzo brought Ana Macha home.
The Falcons tried to make it interesting scoring in the fourth and the fifth innings. A triple and a double from Montevallo made it a 5-4 game. Then in the seventh, they got two runners on base but Natalie Pruitt got out of the jam to earn the win.
Pruitt went the complete game in the win. She gave up 13 hits but only four runs while walking three and striking out three. She earned her third win of the season. The Lady Flames had nine hits in the win. With Mach, Harris, and Kylie Bohl all getting two.
Head Coach Emily Russell was pleased with the result in game one. "I thought Natalie did very well today. Especially in the fourth inning she gave up three straight hits but settled in and got out of the inning. In the first game we got the hits and the outs we needed to which we couldn't get in game two."
Game 2
The second game started slow but turned into a high scoring affair. Hayden Gardner got her first career start for the Lady Flames. She allowed two run on three hits in the first inning which allowed the Falcons to take the early lead.
Lee tied the game in the bottom of the third when Ormsby hit her first home run of the season. Her two-run blast over the right field fence scored Macha and tied the game at two. From the fourth inning on 20 runs were scored between the two teams.
Montevallo scored five times in the fifth thanks to a grand slam from Alisha Lanyon. They added a run in the fifth to take an 8-2 lead. Lee scored three runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth behind a Sidney Lee double, an Alexa Scalzo single, and an error from the Falcons.
That was a close as the Lady Flames would get as UM scored five more runs on three hits and two errors in the sixth inning. Javaria Smith tried to bring the lead back down as she hit a bases clearing double in the bottom of the sixth, but UM had three more runs in the seventh inning to earn the 16-8 win.
Five Lady Flames pitched in game two and they gave up 15 hits, six walks, and six strikeouts. Lee had 12 hits with Ormsby, Scazlo, Lee, and Harris all collecting two hits.
Lee will host Union University next Saturday, April 15 at Butler Field. It will also be strike out cancer day as well as the Lady Flames team up with Go4TheGoal and will play the Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer game.
