Concord Clipped in Doubleheader at Davis & Elkins

ELKINS, W.Va. – The Concord University softball team was outlasted in a pair of Mountain East Conference games against Davis & Elkins at Joni Smith Field Friday afternoon.
 
After the losses, CU falls to 8-15 overall and 3-3 in MEC play while D&E improves to 8-19 on the season and 3-3 in the MEC.
 
Game One: Davis & Elkins 13 – Concord 9
After falling behind 11-1, the Mountain Lions made a late charge starting in the fifth inning.
 
Junior catcher/utility Kayla Sholter led off the frame with a pinch-hit base hit into center field. After a sacrifice bunt moved her to second, junior catcher/utility Morgan Gleason roped a triple into right field and made the score 11-2. Freshman pitcher/outfielder Reghan Hintz followed her with an RBI double to keep the rally going, 11-3. Sophomore infielder Kendall Morgan traded places with Hintz with another RBI double for CU's third run of the inning and brought the score to 11-4.
 
Still with one out, junior infielder Lacie Lewis crushed her second home run of the game, a two-run blast to cut the deficit to five, 11-6. Junior infielder Courtney Raines collected Concord's fifth-straight hit with a single and junior pitcher/infielder Madison Hollis capped off the inning with another two-run homer as the Mountain Lions were down by just three, 11-8.
 
The Senators plated a run in the fifth and sixth, but CU had one final rally. Raines poked a ball into right field for a leadoff single. With one out, junior outfielder Alina Giles reached on an infield single that put runners on first and second. Then, with two outs, junior catcher/utility Gianna Sloan-Lebron drove in a run on an RBI single up the middle.
 
However, the rally ran short as the Senators closed out a 13-9 win.
 
Lewis smashed her fourth and fifth home runs of the season in the game and leads CU with 25 runs batted in. Hintz, Morgan, Raines, and Sloan-Lebron also had multiple hits in the game. Hollis (1-3) took the loss after just working one inning in the circle.
 
Game Two: Davis & Elkins 10 – Concord 7
D&E built another early lead, but the Mountain Lions tied things up in the sixth.
 
CU scored the first two runs in the top of the first, but the Senators answered with seven runs across the first two frames.
 
Lewis picked up a one-out double in the third, followed by a walk from Raines and an infield single from Hollis to load the bases. Sholter followed with another RBI single, keeping the bases loaded but trimming the deficit to 7-3 after three.
 
In the fourth, Gleason began the inning by reaching on an error. With one away, Morgan reached on an infield single and moved Gleason into scoring position. Lewis followed with a flyout to right field, moving Gleason to third and came around to score on a fielding error. The next at-bat was an RBI single into center field by Raines to bring across the second run of the fourth and trail 7-5.
 
Morgan kicked off the sixth inning with her first home run of the season to straightaway center field to bring Concord within one run, 7-6. Two at-bats later, Raines drilled a solo homer over the center field wall to tie the game 7-7.
 
Despite having D&E down to its final out in the seventh, the Senators prevailed 10-7 for the doubleheader sweep.
 
Morgan, Lewis, and Raines each had multiple hits in the game with Raines and Sholter driving in two runs each. Ervin fell to 4-8 in the circle, but Hintz pitched 5.2 innings in relief, only allowing three earned runs.
 
CU takes on West Virginia Wesleyan at Culpepper Field in a doubleheader starting at 12:00 p.m. Sunday.