LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (April 6, 2014) â€" Milligan College softball completed its 2014 road schedule with a split doubleheader against Georgia Gwinnett College on Sunday afternoon, suffering a 6-5 defeat on a walk-off single in the eighth inning of game one before surviving a 5-4 victory in game two.
 
Milligan (17-10, 13-1 AAC) scored in four innings and led 5-1 in game two but needed to hold off a rally by Georgia Gwinnett (27-7-1) in the bottom of the fifth to secure the split.
 
Chancli Connatser drove in a run in the third, Krista Lambdin drove in one with two out in the fourth, and Kimberly Robinson and Kacie Skeen each had RBI's in the fifth to extend the Buffaloes advantage.
 
In the bottom of the fifth, Georgia Gwinnett's Alycia Fields hit a sacrifice fly that scored the third run of the inning and trimmed the Milligan lead to 5-4. GGC would have had runners on second and third following Fields' at-bat, but Natalie Sheffey ended the inning by cutting down Halley Ingram trying to take third on the play. It was Sheffey's second outfield assist of the season.
 
Milligan relief pitcher Robinson threw the final two and two-thirds innings and kept the Grizzlies scoreless on one hit. She picked up her second save of the season while Connatser (11-5) picked up the win. Connatser gave up two earned runs (four total) on six hits and a walk over 4.1 innings. She struck out two.
 
Sheffey and Lambdin led the Buffalo offense with two hits apiece in game two.
 
Game one (6-5, Georgia Gwinnett)
 
Connatser's three-run homer tied the game in the top of the seventh, but Milligan succumbed to a Fields walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth. Fields' game-winning single up the middle came after the Buffaloes recorded the second out of the inning by catching lead runner Littlefield in a rundown between third and home. Heaven Hilton, the batter-runner who went around to second on the play, scored the winning run on the next at-bat.
 
The home run by Connatser in the seventh inning was the senior's first long ball since the 2012 season. It gave the Buffaloes late life after they had allowed Georgia Gwinnett to surge into the lead with five runs in the previous inning.
 
Littlefield had a bases-loaded double in the sixth that dealt the most damage for the Grizzlies as she plated three runs and gave Georgia Gwinnett its first lead of the game. The Grizzlies then added two more later in the inning to go ahead 5-2.
 
Milligan broke open the scoring in the fourth as Skeen singled and Jessica Goodson doubled, each with two out, to score a pair and give Milligan a 2-0 lead. Starting pitcher Robinson had given up only one hit until that point but was lifted in the fifth when Georgia Gwinnett threatened with a big inning.
 
Robinson threw 4.1 innings in all and gave up only three hits and five walks with four strikeouts but received no decision. Connatser suffered the loss, giving up six runs (four earned) on five hits in 3.1 innings.
 
Lambdin and Fields each finished the game 3-for-5 to lead their respective teams. Jessica Wheelock and Skeen also finished with multiple hits, going 2-for-3 in the loss.
 
Up next
 
Nothing but home games covers the remaining portion of Milligan's regular season schedule. Up next, the Buffaloes will face Columbia College (19-13, 6-8 AAC) on Wednesday, April 9 at 2 p.m. on Anglin Field.