GREENSBORO, N.C. – A hard-fought week at the Southern Conference Softball Championship came to an end on Friday evening when the Samford Softball team fell 7-3 to the Chattanooga Mocs after downing the Western Carolina Catamounts by the score of 4-1 to open the day.
 
The Bulldogs finish the season with an overall record of 24-32 with third-place finishes in both the regular season and the tournament. Chattanooga will play UNCG on Saturday for the conference title. 
 
In the do-or-die game one, Jordyn Partain rebounded from a tough Thursday outing to pick up her 10th win of the season on Friday. The junior tossed a one-run complete game while only allowing three hits against three strikeouts. 
 
From the top of the lineup, McKayla Cothran paced the Bulldog offensive with another multi-hit performance and scored a run. In addition, Logan Champion recorded a base knock, drove in a run and scored twice on her own. The infield duo of Katie Campbell and Grier Bruce each drove in a run in the opener. 
 
Western Carolina's lone run of the contest came four batters into the game when the Catamounts laid down a sacrifice bunt to bring home a runner from third. WCU held the lead until the Samford offense came alive in the bottom of the third.
 
Thanks to a pair of Catamount errors in the bottom of the third, the Bulldogs scratched across runs in the frame highlighted by a Bruce double to the left-center wall that scored Champion to make it 3-1 Bulldogs.
 
Samford's two-run held steady until the fifth when Champion added some insurance with a solo home run to left. Champion's dinger was her sixth of the season. 
 
To secure survival, Partain sat the Catamounts down to crystalize the 4-1 Samford victory.
 
In game two, McKenzie Newcomb was dealt the loss as the junior surrendered six runs in 3.1 innings of work. Partain pitched the final 2.2 innings of the season allowing a run. 
 
Samford's final runs of the season turned out to be historic ones as all three runs came on a first-inning three-run home run off the bat of Campbell. The no-doubter was Campbell's 15 of the season to tie the program's single-season record of 15 hit by Whitney Hinton in 2019. 
 
Chattanooga tied the game at three with a pair of home runs in the bottom of the second before plating three more runs in the fourth to take a 6-3 advantage into the 75-minute rain delay that accorded after the completion of the fifth. 
 
After the weather cleared, Chattanooga tacked on one more run in the bottom of the sixth for a 7-3 final. 
 
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