College Softball Final – Randolph-Macon 4-6, Guilford 3-4

ASHLAND, Va. – Winning pitcher Jenna Best’s two-run homer in the sixth inning broke a 4-4 tie and helped Randolph-Macon College to a 6-4 softball win over Guilford College Friday. The Yellow Jackets also won the first game of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) doubleheader, 4-3 in 10 innings.

Best’s one-out blast in the sixth answered the Quakers’ two runs in the top of the inning that tied the score at 4-4. Her RBI single in the third gave the Yellow Jackets (13-5, 5-4 ODAC) a 3-2 lead. She led the team with three RBI and improved to 7-2 in the circle with a complete-game effort. Best scattered seven hits, yielded three earned runs, fanned four and walked three.

Christa Simon and Katie Lockett also had two hits for the Yellow Jackets.

Rachel Howard and Taylor Boyd both had two of the Quakers’ seven hits. Stephanie Sides drove in two, including the tying run in the top of the sixth with a two-out single. Senior Cynthia Hayes’ school-record hitting streak ended at 32 games when she left the contest in the fourth inning hitless in one at-bat. Casey Snead (4-2) took the loss in relief.

Katie Woody singled home Sam Moore with one out in the bottom of the 10th to give the Yellow Jackets a 4-3 win in the opener. The teams combined to strand 23 runners in the contest, 13 by Guilford (19-5, 4-5 ODAC).

Woody’s two-run homer in the bottom of the first got Randolph-Macon back into the game after the Quakers took a 3-0 lead on errant pitching and Boyd’s two-run single. Moore, Best, and Carolyn Gilbertson joined Woody with two hits apiece. Kelsey McLaughlin singled in the game-tying run with a two-out single in the fourth. She also picked up the pitching decision with a complete-game effort.
Marty Wilcox had three hits and Howard added two for the Quakers in the opener. Maggie Shaffer (9-3) threw a career-high nine and a third innings, often pitching out of trouble. She left Yellow Jackets on third base in the second, sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

Guilford continues its stretch of six games in three days Saturday (4/5) when it visits Sweet Briar College for an ODAC doubleheader.

Game 1

                    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R  H E
   Guilford         3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  0 3 10 0
   Randolph-Macon   2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0  1 4 10 1

Win – K McLaughlin (6-3).
Loss – Shaffer (9-3).
Save – None.

Umpires –
Start: 2:55 pm Time: 2:15 Attendance: 122
Weather: Partly cloudy, warm

Game notes:
Old Dominion Athletic Conference game

Game 2

                    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R  H E
   Guilford         0 2 0 0 0 2 0 4  7 2
   Randolph-Macon   1 1 1 1 0 2 X 6 10 2

Win – Jenna Best (7-2).
Loss – Langston (6-1).
Save – None.

Umpires –
Start: 5:33 pm Time: 1:45 Attendance: 122

Game notes:
Old Dominion Athletic Conference game