GAFFNEY, S.C. – The Royals scored their two highest game totals of the season, and the Queens University of Charlotte softball team (17-7; 5-3 SAC) swept Limestone College (13-9) on Sunday with final scores of 13-2 and 12-4 from Babe Ruth Field in Gaffney, S.C. 
 
Queens combined to score 25 runs on 24 hits in only 11 innings. Twelve different players crossed home plate at least one time for the Royals, while each member of the identical starting-nine for Sunday's doubleheader recorded at least two hits and one RBI. The Royals had at least one player reach base in every inning of each game, scoring at least one run in nine of the 11, including all five innings of game two. 
 
In the combined two games, Gerlea Patton led the team in hits with five, Grace Valchar in runs with four and Jordan Hunt in RBIs with five. Meanwhile, in the circle, Courtney Pearson picked up the win in both games, allowing just two earned runs on four hits, 10 strikeouts and three walks in 6.2 innings of work for her tenth and eleventh victories of the season (11-2). 
 
Game One: Queens 13, Limestone 2 (6 inn.)
 
Behind four-RBI and three-RBI performances from Hunt and Patton, respectively, Queens totaled 13 runs in game one, a single-game most of the 2019 campaign thus far. The Royals accumulated 10 total hits, including two apiece from Patton, Sara Ingoldsby and Breanna Martinez, while nine different players came around to touch home plate, led by Valchar whom did so three times. 
 
After a double from Kelly Winter opened the game's scoring in the first, Queens was kept off the scoreboard for the next two innings, the only two innings on Sunday in which it failed to score a run. From then on, the Royals scored five in the fourth, three in the fifth and another four in the sixth to reach mercy-rule territory. 
 
The Royals manufactured its 13 runs on just four extra-base hits – all doubles – including one each by Patton, Winter, Ingoldsby and Hunt. 
 
As for Pearson, the junior twirled yet another gem, completing 5.0 innings in 85 pitches before handing the ball off to Kate Hunter with a 11-run lead to finish the game off. Hunter, who also saw action in game two, struck out two batters and retired the side in only 10 pitches. 
 
Game Two: Queens 12, Limestone 4 (5 inn.)
 
The two teams combined for eight runs through the first two innings and headed into the top of the third all knotted up at 4-4, but Queens went on to strike for a total of eight runs over the next three frames to end the game-two matchup in a mere five innings.  
 
Led by a season-high 14 hits and three different three-run innings, the Royals pulled away from the Saints by eight runs over the final three innings as Pearson and Hunter held Limestone scoreless, and to only two hits, for the final nine outs. 
 
After going hitless in game one from the three and four spots on the lineup card, Sydney Ditto and McKenzie McCullen bounced back in a big way in game two. The duo combined for four hits, four RBIs and four runs scored, including a home run and double from Ditto and a two-run single from McCullen. The home run is Ditto's fourth of the season, while McCullen extends her team-leading RBI total to 23. 
 
Pearson, who relieved Shannon McGuire in the third, pitched 1.2 innings and picked up win 11. Hunter entered the game for Pearson once again in game two, this time picking up the save, the first of her college career. 
 
Six different Royals recorded at least two hits in game two: Patton led the way with three, while Winter, Ditto, McCullen, Ingoldsby and Valchar each had two.