CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Queens University of Charlotte softball team (22-12; 10-10 SAC) closed out its regular season on Monday afternoon against Mars Hill at Park Road Park. The Royals dropped both games of the season-finale doubleheader by scores of 9-7 and 5-4, respectively.
Game One: Mars Hill 9, Queens 7
Grace Valchar and
Jordan Hunt both went deep, the two combined for five RBIs, and
Brooke Sanford recorded four hits in four at bats, but the Royals dropped game one to the Lions by a final score of 9-7.
Queens and Mars Hill traded punches throughout the game and left the fourth inning in a 7-6 lead with three frames remaining. The Royals leapt out to their one-run lead thanks to a two-run double from
Grace Valchar and a two-run home run by
Jordan Hunt, as well as a solo shot from Valchar in the fourth, but Mars Hill bounced back with three runs in the final three innings to take the lead and the two-run win.
Courtney Pearson pithed the first full three innings for Queens, giving up two hits and three earned runs on six walks and three strikeouts.
Shannon McGuire took the loss, going 3.2 innings pitched, giving up six hits, five runs (four earned) and two walks, including one strikeout.
Valchar led the offense going 2-for-4 with three RBIs, one run, a home run and a double. Hunt followed, going 1-for-3 with one run, two RBIs and one home run.
Game Two: Mars Hill 5, Queens 4
In a back-and-forth game that saw three different lead changes, the Royals ultimately fell short in game two, falling to Mars Hill by a final of 5-4.
After allowing a run to cross the plate in the top of the first inning, the Royals immediately answered in the bottom half of the frame as
Sydney Ditto went deep on the first pitch of the game from the Lions starting pitcher. Queens went on to score one more run in the inning off a sacrifice fly by
Kelly Winter to take a 2-1 lead heading to the second inning.
After Queens added one run in the third, Mars Hill struck back for two in the fourth inning to tie the game at three-runs apiece, which the score remained until the seventh inning. In the top of the seventh, the Lions scored two runs to gain a two-run advantage, and Queens answered with one run of their own in the bottom half of the inning with a sacrifice fly to right field by
Sara Ingoldsby, but the two-run deficit was ultimately too much to overcome as the Royals could only cut the lead to one before falling by one run.
Next Up:
Queens will advance to the South Atlantic Conference Championships as the No. 6 seed and will play Carson-Newman on Friday, April 26 at 4:30 p.m. in Salisbury, N.C.
