TROUTVILLE, Va. - In the end there were plenty of game balls to be shared, but it was the performance of a freshman pitcher that put the Lady Tigers in position to beat Cedarville 8-1 in eight innings in the opening round of the NCCAA Women's Softball Championship.



Martina Riney, Owensboro, Ky., entered the game in the fourth inning with two runners on and she and her Lady Tiger teammates clinging to a 1-all tie. Riney juiced the dugout blood pressure when she walked the first batter she faced, Missy Murphy, to load the bases. But then she struck out Kelsey Warrington and coaxed two fly balls for the second and third outs.

Riney gave up but one hit the rest of the way and Campbellsville exploded for seven runs in the top of the eighth to seal its first victory ever in a NCCAA event.

"I told them to hold off as long as they could just to give Cedarville a little hope," said Coach Shannon Wathen, with just a tinge of  sarcasm.

A CU error and a double by Cedarville's Sydney Miller in the first inning spotted Campbellsville a run that would hold up for three frames. But in the top of the fourth, Jennifer England reached on an error and took second on a wild pitch. Bailey Dillender walked and then Becca Cook delivered an RBI-single to center.

Starting pitcher, Courtney Turpin, gave up four hits in her three innings of work, striking out one. But when she got in trouble with successive singles to open the bottom of the fourth by Miller and Christina Zorn, Wathen looked for her hook.

With Riney shutting down the Yellowjackets 1-2-3, except for a one-out triple by Kenleigh Ludlow in in the fifth, her teammates blew an opportunity to score a go-ahead run.

In the top of the fifth, Jordan Cornett hit a one-out single. A fielder's choice by Alex Jane Clemmons moved her to second, but then Kacie Vincent ran the Lady Tigers out of the inning, thrown out trying to get an extra base from a single of her own.

Campbellsville was able to erase Cedarville threats in the third and the fifth with inning-ending double plays.

Clemmons and England had four of the Lady Tigers' eight RBIs, Clemmons with two singles and a run-scoring walk. England plated two runs in the eighth when she tripled to right.

Cedarville's Kayla Thornberry seemed to have CU batter's numbers early, striking out four before she was forced to leave the game five batters into the 13-batter eighth inning.

Cornett led off the inning with a single and five hits later Campbellsville had iced a win. Clemmons, England, Dillender Cook and Bullock reached in the frame. Natalie Duncan was hit by a pitch and Brooke Boils and Clemmons both had RBIs on bases-loaded walks.

Campbellsville will meet Simpson (Calif.) University at 2:00 Friday.In other first-round games: No.-8 seed Geneva defeated Central Baptist 4-2, No.-4 seed North Greenville Beat Covenant 2-1 in nine innings, and Simpson, the No. 2 seed, beat Judson 4-0.