MILLIGAN, Tenn. – Milligan University softball's regular season came to a close on Friday afternoon at Anglin Field, as the Buffaloes faced off with the top team in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) standings and were dealt a pair of losses to close out the regular-season portion of their campaign.
Battle number one would remain scoreless until the third inning, when Reinhardt scored three times via an RBI double and a two-run homer by their third and fourth hitters of their lineups. That made it 3-0.
After failing to score, the Buffs then afforded the Eagles five more tallies in the top of the fourth. An RBI fielder's choice, a two-run single up the middle and another two-run blast made it 8-0.
Milligan did score one run via an error in the bottom of the fourth, as Alana Parsons crossed the plate, but RU then tacked on a sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth. That run clinched them a 9-1 run-rule win over Milligan in five frames.
Neither squad could muster up much offense in the second game, but a key error came back to bite the Buffaloes. Reinhardt scored their first run in the top of the fourth on an RBI single, but then a miscue up the middle with two outs allowed the Eagles a shot with two runners in scoring position, which they took advantage of with a two-RBI single to push the score to 3-0.
Milligan grabbed one of those three runs back in the bottom half of the fourth on an RBI groundout by Jordan Roullettwheeler. It would score Parsons for the second time of the day.
That would be all for either side with the bats, as pitching was queen in the latter battle, which ended in a 3-1 MU loss.
Nine total hits were racked up by the Milligan lineup. Parsons had three of those nine knocks and was the lone Buff with a multi-hit game, grabbing a pair of them in the first bout. Ashley Worley went 2-for-6 on the day as the only other player with more than one hit. Roullettwheeler, Morgan Lawson and Mia Grasse had the other three.
Bree Presnell had a tough start all-around after a good first two frames. She ended up tossing 3.2 innings and allowing eight runs in eight hits to fall to 6-5 on the season. Katelin Secrist relieved for the final 1.1 innings and gave up one run on three hits with one strikeout.
Sadie Shoun was in the circle for the complete second game, allowing three runs (one earned) on three hits and four walks allowed. She also had one punchout in the loss that moved her to 6-6 on the season.
The conclusion of the season means that Milligan will be competing in the AAC Tournament as the final team in at the No. 10 seed, with the first contest of the tourney set to be played on Apr. 28 at Brickyard Ball Fields in Kingsport, Tenn.
