CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Courtney Pearson struck out a season-high 15 batters,
Shannon McGuire followed suit and fanned a career-high 13 of her own, and the Queens University of Charlotte softball team (19-9; 7-5 SAC) edged Tusculum University (17-17; 5-9 SAC) by a 3-2 final score in both games of Saturday's doubleheader at Park Road Park.
Queens improves to 11-1 this season in home games, and the conference sweep propels the Royals to second-place in the South Atlantic Conference standings, one game behind first-place Lenoir-Rhyne.
The Royals celebrated Senior Day on Saturday for their three senior captains,
Sydney Ditto,
Cierra Robinson and
Brooke Sanford.
Game One: Queens 3, Tusculum 2
Grace Valchar hit a solo home run, Robinson celebrated Senior Day with a go-ahead two-run double, and
Courtney Pearson held the Tusculum bats in check as Queens took the win in game one, 3-2.
Pearson (12-3) finished with 15 strikeouts, a season-high and one strikeout away from tying a career-high mark. She picked up her 10th complete-game of the season and ranks fourth in the conference with a 2.12 ERA.
The Royals were the first to find the scoreboard as Valchar went deep in the bottom of the second inning with a solo shot to left-center field for her fourth home run of the season.
After the Pioneers tied the game at 1-1 in the next inning, Robinson, a senior, stepped to the plate with runners in scoring position and got ahold of the first pitch, sending it on a line to the right-center field fence for a two-run double, ultimately scoring the game-winning run.
Tusculum scored one more in the sixth, then had the tying runner on second base in the seventh, but Pearson shut the Pioneers down from there to pick up the crucial conference victory for Queens.
Game Two: Queens 3 Tusculum 2
Kelly Winter homered in the first inning for the first time this season, a solo shot off the top of the wall in right-center field to put Queens ahead early, 1-0. The score then remained exactly that for the next four innings, as pitcher remained nearly unhittable, but Queens added two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth, which proved to be the difference, as Queens went on to win game two, 3-2, after Tusculum scored two in the seventh.
After Ditto reached safely on a bunt single to start the bottom of the sixth, McCullen drove a towering fly over the fence in right-center field, her team-leading seventh home run of the season, to put the Royals ahead, 3-0.
The Pioneers answered with two of their own in the seventh behind a two-run home run of their own, but McGuire retired the next three batters in order to finish off the doubleheader sweep.
McGuire (6-4) finished her complete-game performance by allowing two earned runs on only three hits. She walked one batter and struck out a career-high 13, breaking her own record of 12 set last season.
Next up, the Royals will head to Wingate, N.C. on Tuesday, April 9 for another doubleheader, this time against the Wingate Bulldogs. First pitch of game one is set for 2 p.m.
