SALEM, Va. – Lynchburg College’s Kayla St. John hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth inning as Guilford College dropped a Saturday morning Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament contest to Lynchburg, 7-6, in an eight-inning elimination game at the Moyer Sports Complex.
A Makayla Carver lead-off triple to start the contest led to a Laura Hall RBI-single to put the Quakers on the board after one half-inning. Lynchburg produced a two-run rally over their first two innings as the Hornets rallied with two outs in each inning to squeeze out a run each inning one at-bat before the Quakers regained control to retire the side. The Hornets rallied with two outs again in the bottom of the fifth inning as Mackenzie Chitwood hit a RBI-double to extend the lead, 3-1.
The Quakers responded one half-inning later with a pair of doubles in two of the first three at-bats of the inning as Makayla Crawford brought home Brooks Bray (Thomasville, N.C./Ledford) on a pinch-hit RBI-double to cut the deficit in half. Guilford continued their rally in the top of the seventh inning, led by Casey Snead’s one-out double in an inning where an error and a wild pitch scored the remainder of Guilford’s run. The Quakers carried a two-run lead into the bottom half of the inning, but Lynchburg rallied to tie the score in a two-run rally, capped by Chitwood’s two-out double down the left field line.
The Quakers moved the runner placed on second base to start the extra inning as Caroline Barnette hit a sacrifice fly after a sacrifice bunt on at-bat earlier to give Guilford the lead. Lynchburg rallied to score two runs in the final inning as St. John’s single was hit with two outs to advance the Hornets in the ODAC Tournament.
Four Quakers produced a multi-hit effort as Hall hit two-for-three with one RBI. Bray hit two-for-four with a double while Snead also hit two-for-four with a double and one RBI. Carver hit two-for-five with a triple as Guilford totaled 13 hits.
Snead (5-6) took the complete-game loss, striking out one and walking two in seven and two-third innings.