LAURINBURG, N.C. (April 17, 2016) â€" The Milligan College softball team allowed four runs by St. Andrews University in the first inning of game one and fell 5-2, but bounced back with a three-spot in back-to-back innings during game two to earn a 9-4 victory and split in its Appalachian Athletic Conference regular-season finale on Sunday.
 
With a 4-for-5 effort in game two with five RBI's and two triples, Natalie Sheffey was a combined 5-for-8 with six RBI's and three extra base hits. She added a run scored in each game, doing so all while expanding her hitting streak to seven games. Freshman Erica Roller hit her second home run of the season in the final inning of the day, making her the sixth Buff with two or more long balls on the year.
 
Twice the Buffaloes loaded the bases in the first inning, and twice they came up empty, but only once did it lead to a loss.
 
After Milligan stranded the bases loaded with one out in the top of the first in game one, St. Andrews used the momentum from getting out of the jam to put a four-spot in the bottom half. With runners on second and third, the Lady Knights put together a two-out rally that saw the next three batters reach on a two-run single, a walk and a two-RBI triple.
 
Starter Jessica Goodson (10-7) settled down after the rocky first inning with 1-2-3 second and third innings, keeping the Lady Knights to only one more hit over the next three innings, but two errors and an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth ended her day in the circle.  Milligan scored twice in the top of the fifth on an RBI-double by Sheffey and an RBI-single by Kacie Skeen, but it was not enough to make up for big first inning by St. Andrews.
 
Next, and similar to the opener, Milligan started game two with the bases loaded thanks to another first-inning walk by Jessica Wheelock, a hit by Sheffey, a sacrifice bunt from Kimberly Robinson and another first inning walk from Skeen, but was unable to cash in.
 
This time, however, the Buffs would be the ones to put up a big inning as another RBI-knock by Sheffey, this one a two-run triple, and another hit by Robinson, this one for an RBI-single, made it 3-0 Milligan. Then, after tagging out a Lady Knights' runner between third and home to hold St. Andrews to one run in the bottom of the third, Milligan gave itself some breathing room with three more runs in the fourth.
 
The latest batch of runs came in the form of Sheffey's third RBI of the game, the second run of the game off the bat of Robinson, and the second RBI of the day by Skeen, this one in the form of a walk to score Wheelock, who reached with her third walk of the day. Skeen and Wheelock both finished with three walks between the two games.
 
After freshman Kassi Butcher (7-4) finished off game one with two innings of one-hit softball with only one walk, she started game two with two hitless innings but had to strand Lady Knights runners on third in each of the first two innings due to walks. Butcher finished with 5.1 innings of work with six hits, two runs, four walks and three strikeouts in her win.
 
Milligan's record moved to 24-14 overall and 12-8 in the AAC as it avoided its second straight conference sweep and third sweep in April to end the AAC slate. St. Andrews saw its record move to 14-29 and 7-13.
 
Next up, Milligan ends it regular season with a tough, nonconference home matchup against No. 10 Georgia Gwinnett College on Saturday, April 23, at 1 p.m. The Grizzlies narrowly edged passed the Buffs in nine innings in their first meeting back in February.