TROUTVILLE, Va. - Campbellsville's softball season came to a screeching halt Friday as the Lady Tigers managed but two runs in two games and were bounced from the NCCAA Women's Softball Championship 2-0 and 7-2 by Simpson and Central Baptist, respectively.
CU (34-27) was bumped from the tournament by the No. 3 and 1 seeds after collecting only nine hits in 14 innings.
Against No.-3 seed Simpson University, the Lady Tigers best scoring opportunity came in the second inning when
Becca Cook and
Morgan Bullock singled with one out. But they never advanced past second.
Simpson scored both of its runs in the fourth after the home-plate umpire overruled a field ump's out call at first, giving the Red Hawks runners at first and second with no outs.
Martina Riney manipulated two outs, but McKenzie Burroughs' double and the ensuing runs proved to be all Simpson would need.
Jordan Cornett and Bullock had two-hit games, with one of Cornett's a leadoff double in the the third.
Riney pitched a six hitter, recording three strike outs.
But in game two against Central Baptist, with a gaudy 54-5 record, Riney didn't fair as well. Four hits and a walk led to an early relief appearance by
Courtney Turpin. After her first pitch to Erica Gunter cleared the left-centerfield fence Campbellsville had dug a 6-0 hole.
CU scored a run in the fourth after
Alex Jane Clemmons singled, was sacrificed to second and eventually scored on a fly ball to center by
Bailey Dillender. Campbellsville inched another run closer in the top of the sixth when Clemmons led off the frame with a triple. She raced home on a third-to-first ground out by Dillender, slipping in under the tag of catcher Ashley Fair.
Central's Emily Guess struck out seven of the first nine Lady Tigers she faced, but was still pulled in the fifth for Jessica Sheldon.
Clemmons had a two-hit game, a single and triple, and Bullock and
Jennifer England had the only other hits for Campbellsville.