SALISBURY, N.C. – After a regular season in which it went 22-14 overall, and 10-10 in highly-contested conference play, the Queens University of Charlotte softball team fell to Carson-Newman University on Saturday at Whitley Field in the quarterfinal round of the South Atlantic Conference Championship by a final score of 7-0.
Following regular season finales this past week, the Royals entered the league championship on Saturday seeded sixth in the SAC, while the Eagles came in as the three-seed. On Wednesday, the NCAA announced Queens had entered the regional poll's top-10 for the first time, leaping all the way up to No. 5, while Carson-Newman held the No. 3 spot in the region.
While the Eagles advance to the semifinal round of the conference tournament in pursuit of their third consecutive league title, the Royals will await their fate to see if they have accomplished enough of a body of work to earn a spot in the regional tournament, which begins on May 10.
In Saturday's quarterfinal round, Queens was tasked with facing off against the newly-crowned SAC Pitcher of the Year in Allison Rager of Carson-Newman. Rager pitched lights out for the Eagles in her first contest since winning the award as she went five full innings, giving up only three hits and no walks while striking out five.
On the opposite side, second-team all-conference recipient
Courtney Pearson took to the circle for Queens. The last time she faced the Eagles, when they were ranked No. 7 in the nation, Pearson twirled a complete-game, four-hit shutout and outdueled Rager in a pitching duel. This time, however, Carson-Newman jumped on the scoreboard early, scoring two runs in the first inning, followed by another run in the second, as the Eagles took a 3-0 lead after two.
Following a scoreless third inning, Carson-Newman then struck for three more runs in the fourth from an RBI single by Rager and a two-run double by KaraLynne Levi. While
Shannon McGuire entered in relief for the Royals in the fourth inning, recording the last seven outs of the ballgame, the strong pitching of the Eagles was too much to overcome, as Lacie Rinus entered in the sixth and nailed down the final six outs that Carson-Newman needed in order to advance to the next round.
Led by one hit apiece by
Sydney Ditto,
Kelly Winter,
Sara Ingoldsby and
Breanna Martinez, Queens finished the game with four total hits to Carson-Newman's 13. As it stands, Ditto, who has scored 127 career runs in a Royals' uniform, remains one run away from tying the school record of career-runs scored, a record set by Whitney Britt, who played from 2012-15.
Pearson suffered the loss for the Royals, moving her record to 14-5 on the season. Meanwhile, Rager, who picked up the win, improves to 15-6.
