CLERMONT, Fla. – The finals of the Sun Conference Softball Championship are set, with the top two seeds advancing to Saturday’s finale at PFX Athletics.
Top-seed Warner outlasted No. 3 seed Thomas for a 5-4 win in 12 innings to advance to the final from the winner’s bracket, and No. 2 seed Southeastern won three games to come through the loser’s bracket.
The Fire and Royals will square off at noon Saturday in the championship game with a second game to follow if Southeastern wins the first meeting. The champion will earn an automatic berth in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round.
GAME 4 – SEU 3, USCB 0
Lindsie Scholwinski tossed a two-hit shutout with five strikeouts, and Cat Maldonado went 2-for-3 with two RBIs in the first of Southeastern’s three wins on the day.
Cheyenne Blaha opened the scoring with an RBI double in the first and came around to score on Maldonado’s RBI single for a 2-0 lead. Maldonado added an RBI single in the fifth.
GAME 5 – WU 5, TU 4 (12 inn.)
Warner’s Chelsie Valentine and Thomas’ Lauren West dueled for 11 innings before an offensive outburst in the 12th led to a wild finish.
Thomas took a 1-0 lead on Brittany Daniels’ sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, but the Royals tied it on pinch-hitter Madison Taylor’s RBI double in the fifth.
That’s where it remained until the 12th, when the Night Hawks broke the tie on Kelsey Connelly’s two-run double and added another run on Kaylee Smith’s sacrifice fly.
The Royals loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the inning on a pair of walks and a single and plated their first run on a Thomas error before Paige Davis delivered an RBI single, Tori Johnson drew a bases-loaded walk, and Savanna Rumore lifted a sacrifice fly to bring home the winning run.
GAME 6 – SEU 7, AMU 2
Sam Holcomb went 3-for-3 with two RBIs, and Sydnie Malloy was 2-for-3 with two RBIs to help the Fire stave off elimination for the second time of the day.
Ave Maria’s Marinna Shadley hit the first home run of the tournament in the top of the first, but Scholwinski came on in relief just four batters into the game and limited the Gyrenes to one run for the rest of the game.
The Fire broke open a close game with four runs in the fifth, scoring on Holcomb’s two-run double and RBI singles from Brandee Pietrzak and Malooy.
GAME 7 – SEU 10, TU 4
Holcomb went 3-for-4 with a double, two home runs, and five RBIs to power the Fire into the championship game.
Scholwinski threw another strong game, allowing four runs (one earned) and eight hits over seven innings with six strikeouts.
Kiah Ferrell added two hits and two RBIs as the Fire got the bats going, collecting a tournament-high 12 hits.