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BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— On Senior Day, Samford freshman
Ashlyn Barnes delivered a walk-off, RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Bulldog softball team to a 6-5 win over Southern Conference-leading UNCG Sunday at the Samford Softball Field.
"Ashlyn has done a great job for us all year, coming from the nine spot, up to the two spot in the order," Samford head coach
Mandy Burford said. "Shelby (Maze) and Lexie (Higgins) have been great role models for her, and I'm really happy she was able to do that on Senior Day to get the win and avoid the sweep."
Barnes went 2-for-4 with two RBI in the game.
Kelsey Royalty went 2-for-2, while
Hannah Trombley hit a home run and drove in three runs in a 1-for-3 performance at the plate. Senior
Shelby Maze went 1-for-3 with a triple and an RBI. Her triple gives her 11 for her career, setting a new school career record in the category. Maze now holds school career records for hits, runs scores, batting average and triples.
Prior to the game, Maze and fellow senior,
Lexie Higgins were honored in Senior Day ceremonies.
"They've been great leaders since they got here their freshman year," Burford said of Higgins and Maze. "They've really grown into great people, not just great athletes. I'm really excited for them that the last game they'll play at home will be a win."
Another freshman,
Emily Barnett (3-1) earned the win in the circle for Samford. She pitched the final 2.1 innings, without allowing a hit to pick up the win. Freshman
McKenna Gillespie started the game in the circle, tossing 4.2 innings, giving up five runs on five hits, with all of the runs coming in the top of the fifth inning.
"Greensboro is one of the best hitting teams in our conference, and they're known for their long ball," Burford said. "In the fifth, I was really proud of the way Emily came in, settled it down and kept the ball in the park and got the ground balls we needed to keep them at five."
For UNCG, Marisa Sholtes hit a three-run home run, while Jordan Gontram hit a two-run homer to lead the Spartans. Hannah Stiltner (8-4) took the loss in the circle for the Spartans. Stiltner pitched the final 2.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits.
Samford broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning when Trombley hit a three-run home run to left field to give Samford a 3-0 lead. In the top of the fifth inning, UNCG's Sholtes hit a three-run home run to knot the score at 3-3. Later in the same inning, Gontram hit a two-run shot to give the Spartans a 5-3 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Samford came back with two runs to tie the score again at 5-5. Maze tripled to left-center field to drive in Royalty for the first run of the inning. Barnes then singled through the right side of the infield for the game-tying run.
In the seventh inning, pinch-hitter
Mekhi Mayfield singled to center field to start the rally.
Whitney Hinton then re-entered the game to run for Mayfield, and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Hinton then moved to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Royalty. With two outs in the inning, Barnes singled down the left-field line to drive in Hinton to give Samford the 6-5 win.
With the win, Samford improves to 18-36 overall and 7-9 in Southern Conference play. UNCG is now 43-11 overall and 13-3 in league games.
Samford will open the Southern Conference Tournament by taking on fourth-seeded Chattanooga Wednesday at 9 a.m. (CT) in Greensboro, N.C. UNCG is the top seed in the tournament and will take on the Samford-Chattanooga winner Thursday at 11:30 a.m. (CT). The games can be seen live on the SoCon Digital Network.
