Riding a three-game winning streak into non-conference play against Longwood on Sunday afternoon, the Lady Buccaneer softball team let two games get away from them as the Lancers pulled off a sweep at Lancer Field. Longwood defeated ETSU 1-0 in the opener and pulled off an 8-5 come-from-behind victory in the nightcap.
With the sweep, the Lady Bucs saw their record drop to 21-16, while the Lancers moved their record above the .500 mark as they now stand 15-14.
A day after scoring 18 runs on 21 hits against North Carolina Central, ETSU’s offense came up stagnant against Longwood. Hardy, who allowed one unearned run on two hits in 7.1 innings of work, suffered the loss and saw her record fall to 11-6 on the year. The Rocklin, Calif., native also struck out eight Longwood hitters and did not issue a walk on the day.
Hardy retired 18 of the first 19 Lancer batters she faced, including eight via the strikeout.
ETSU threatened in the seventh when Campbell and Hardy recorded back-to-back one-out singles. Then, after Chelsea O’Connor moved the runners over to second and third, pinch hitter Annie Martin hit a line drive to Courtney Long at first to end the inning.
With the game heading into extra frames, the contest was decided with the international tie-breaker rule. ETSU had its first chance to push a run across the board when Vicki McCoy was placed at second to begin the inning and she advanced to third on Katie Henderson’s sacrifice bunt.
Junior shortstop Cheniece Cason came through with a single to first, but it was not deep enough to score McCoy from third. With one out and runners on the corners, head coach Andrea Mangrum called for the squeeze play with senior outfielder Kate Powell stepping to the plate; however, Powell couldn’t execute the squeeze and McCoy was tagged out in a rundown.
Longwood then had its chance in the bottom half of the inning, and after ETSU couldn’t get the game-winning bunt down, Emily Radford did just that.
Radford scored on the fielder’s choice RBI bunt, and when Amy Campbell went to tag Brittany Matthews at the plate, she had the ball in her right hand, but tagged with her left, and Matthews was called safe for the game-winner.
Campbell and Cason recorded four of the five Lady Buccaneer hits in the game, as Cason went 2-for-4 and Campbell ended 2-for-3.
Wells (11-12) earned the win after tossing eight scoreless innings and allowing five hits.
The Lancers started strong in the second game, and took a 4-1 lead over the first five innings.
After ETSU rallied from four runs down to take a 5-4 lead in the top of the sixth inning, Longwood capitalized on two Lady Buccaneer errors in the bottom half of the inning and the Lancers scored four unearned runs to win the nightcap, 8-5.
Longwood plated two runs in the bottom of the second on a Maggie Margadonna fly to left and Courtney Long came around to score the first run of the inning when Cheniece Cason had trouble fielding a grounder at short, which gave the Lancers an early 2-0 advantage.
Longwood pushed its lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth when the Lancers’ Camille Ketsdever and Long hit back-to-back solo shots.
However, ETSU showed its character and rallied back with five runs in the sixth to take its first lead of the game at, 5-4. Kate Powell led off the inning with a single to right, Amy Campbell reached on an error by the pitcher and Jessie Hackworth worked a walk to load the bases.
With no outs and the bases loaded, Katie Henderson found a gap in left field and her double scored both Powell and Campbell to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Then, on the next play, freshman Annie Martin tied the game at 4-4 when she recorded her first collegiate triple. Eventually, Martin came in to score when the Lady Bucs used a double steal and took a 5-4 lead.
The ETSU lead wouldn’t last, however, as the Lancers scored four unearned runs off two Lady Buccaneer errors and rallied to an 8-5 victory.
Ketsdever scored on an error by Cason at shortstop to lead off the inning and subsequently stole second.
Then, after Ketsdever was moved over to third on Long’s sacrifice bunt, ETSU had a chance to end the inning when Tricia Nelson grounded to Henderson at third. However, the sophomore third baseman committed the second Lady Buccaneer error and prolonged the inning for Longwood.
The Lancers took advantage of the miscues when Amy Betterton doubled and put Longwood back on top, 6-5. Emily Radford added to the lead when her two-run home run added some insurance and extended the Lancers’ lead to 8-5.
Wells (12-12) picked up her second win of the day. Hardy (11-7) suffered her second loss of the afternoon by allowing eight runs (two earned) on eight hits.
ETSU returns Johnson City on Friday afternoon when the Lady Bucs play host to Atlantic Sun rival Lipscomb. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. inside the ETSU Softball Complex.

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