LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.—Southeastern had to generate a run in the seventh to avoid elimination, then got a two-base sacrifice fly in the 10
th to come away with a 5-4 win over Missouri Baptist to remain active in the Lawrenceville Bracket of the NAIA Softball National Tournament.
"We stayed really composed and our defense was really good today," said coach
Kayla Watkins. "I thought our pitchers' composure was really good and we want to respond to pressure with confidence."
The Fire jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first on a two-out, two-run double to left field by
Hailey Brooks to score
Riley Sanders and Raley McKinney. The Spartans responded in the third with a solo homer and a two-out, two-run homer to lead 3-2. The lead stretched to two in the fifth on a two-out RBI single through the left side of the infield.
Brooks drove in another two-out run in the bottom of the fifth with an infield single to get Sanders home to cut the deficit back to one.
McKinney tied the game in the bottom of the seventh with a groundout to second to score
Chapel Cunningham, who led off the inning by beating out a ground ball to shortstop.
In the pitching circle,
Autumn Hunter came out of the bullpen and tossed four shutout innings and faced two over the minimum. The senior did not allow a hit and struck out two with one walk to score her ninth win of the season.
"Having Autumn come in right there was really big," said Watkins. "She's been out of the mix the last couple of weeks, so to get to use her to finish that was cool because it was a team effort win."
Maria Zelenka also worked 3.1 out of the pen in relief of
Edan Playa and allowed just one earned run on four hits and struck out four.
"I thought those innings were huge from (Zelenka)," said Watkins. "She's been in that middle relief role a lot and haven't had to go to her because we've gotten a lot of good starts but talked about staying mentally ready and she's done an incredible job of that as a freshman."
Leah Gonzalez led off the bottom of the 10
th with a single to center field and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Brooks. Quillen's fly ball was handled but the defender fell which allowed Gonzalez to score on the play and end the game.
Cunningham and Sanders led the offense with three hits each. Gonzalez and Brooks added two each.
The Fire will face Spring Arbor at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday in an elimination game with the winner facing the loser of the Georgia Gwinnett-Eastern Oregon game afterwards.
