GREENSBORO, N.C. - The No. 7 seed Meredith Avenging Angels opened up the USA South Conference Tournament with a thrilling 4-3 win in extra innings over the No. 2 seed Greensboro College Thursday afternoon at Barber Park.
Meredith had twice as many hits as the Pride for the game while also making one less error. The game was scoreless for three full innings. Graduate senior
Hannah Weigle got the start for the Angels picking up two strikeouts in just over three innings of work while only allowing one earned run.
Sophomore
Lillie Davis picked up the win for the Angels striking out nine Greensboro batters while working out of multiple jams to keep the Angels in the fight.
Greensboro struck first in the bottom of the fourth but the Angels would match that run in the fifth. Senior
Savannah Talley singled to start the inning and was pinch-ran for by freshman
Salem Zeka. Zeka would advance to second on a sacrifice bunt from junior
Rheanne Burden before moving to third on a single from sophomore
Emilee Lewis.
Senior
Mia Staggs laid down a bunt for a single scoring Zeka and tying the game. Greensboro regained the lead in the bottom of the inning scoring two runs off walks.
A scoreless sixth inning for the Angels forced them to score two runs to keep the game alive in the top of the seventh. They started the inning going 0-2 and were one out away from losing the game, but Lewis was able to draw a walk and give the Angels life. Staggs followed that with a single putting runners on first and second for junior
Sarah Manis.
Manis, who had a three-hit game, singled to score Lewis. That brought up sophomore
Avery Puryear who leads the team in RBIs, she picked up her biggest of the year tying the game with an RBI single scoring Staggs.
Meredith fended off the Pride in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings. In the top of the eighth, Talley once again started the rally with a double to left center. Freshman
Riley Fay came into run and advanced to third on a Burden groundout. Sophomore
Mariah Bell then singled scoring Fay and giving the Angels the lead and eventually the victory after Greensboro went down in order in the bottom of the inning.
Meredith will await the Methodist and North Carolina Wesleyan winner to see who they play tomorrow at noon. The USA South Softball Tournament website is below with full details.
https://usasouth.net/tournaments/?id=208
