SALEM, Va. – The Concord University softball team won its third and fourth games of Saturday as it knocked off Shepherd, 2-0, and West Virginia State, 7-4, to advance to Sunday's Mountain East Conference Championship against West Liberty at the Moyer Sports Complex.
The Mountain Lions go to 38-18 on the season with the pair of wins.
Game 1: Concord 2 – Shepherd 0
The CU offense manufactured two runs in the fourth as freshman pitcher/outfielder
Laura Thompson tossed her second career complete-game shutout.
After giving up a two-out single in the first inning, Thompson stymied the Rams' bats by retiring the next 13 hitters she faced. SU's Lori Sturgill also quieted the Concord hitters early after they had scored 12 runs on Charleston right before opposing Sturgill.
However, Thompson led off the inning by getting hit before freshman utility
Sarah Thompson and junior utility
Jenna Witt followed with singles to load up the bases. Consecutive groundouts by senior utility
Kylie Kent and senior catcher/first baseman
Lauren Blunt got the Mountain Lions out to a 2-0 lead with the Thompson sisters scoring on each out.
A leadoff single was harmless to Thompson and CU in the sixth inning as it recorded three straight outs afterwards. Shepherd threatened again in the seventh after the first two batters reached bringing the go-ahead run to the plate. But a strikeout, a flyout to left field and a soft line out to shortstop ended the contest without SU getting on the board.
Thompson moved to 8-6 with the win as she struck out three and only allowed three hits.
Game 2: Concord 7 – West Virginia State 4 (Eight Innings)
Junior pitcher/outfielder
Darby Fitzpatrick's go-ahead double in the eighth inning helped CU overcome West Virginia State's seventh-inning rally as the Mountain Lions fought off elimination for a fourth straight game.
The Mountain Lions opened up a 2-0 lead after a two-run single by Blunt in the third inning that scored Kent and L. Thompson.
CU took that same lead into a near two-hour rain delay that saw action pick back up in the top of the fifth. WVSU scored once in the bottom of the fifth before Concord's two-run edge was restored on a RBI groundout by sophomore outfielder
Dani Bloomingdale in the top of the sixth.
Down to its last strike of the game, West Virginia State plated two runs after a walk ignited the rally.
Unfazed by the Yellow Jackets' scoring, Concord calmly got the first two runners aboard in the eighth before Fitzpatrick steered an opposite field double down the left field line to plate one run. S. Thompson came up with an RBI groundout later in the inning. And a West Virginia State error allowed two runs to cross, opening the advantage to 7-3.
WVSU responded with back-to-back hits to open the bottom of the eighth including a lead-off home run. On in relief, sophomore pitcher/outfielder
Cartney Schoolcraft recorded the final three outs including getting the last out of the game with the tying run at the plate.
Thompson earned her second win of the afternoon to improve to 9-6. Schoolcraft got her third save of 2019.
Sophomore utility
Skylar Jenkins led the way with three of the 12 Concord hits. Blunt, Fitzpatrick and Kent each had two.
The Mountain Lions play West Liberty 1:00 p.m. Sunday at the Moyer Sports Complex. CU will need to defeat the Hilltoppers twice to win the MEC Championship. Â
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