The Roanoke College softball team battled over two days and came up 2-2 but that wasn’t enough to stay alive in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament last weekend. Top seeded Virginia Wesleyan and Randolph-Macon advanced out of the first weekend of play and will meet Friday and Saturday in Virginia Beach to decide the ODAC champ.
Last weekend’s eight-team affair was played at the James I. Moyer Complex in Salem, with the winner of two four-team pods advancing. Roanoke was in a pod with Bridgewater, Randolph-Macon and Ferrum while the other pod had Virginia Wesleyan, Lynchburg, Averett and Shenandoah.
After rain postponed Saturday’s openers the Maroons took on second seeded Bridgewater at noon Sunday. This was a wild affair with the Maroons winning 6-4 in 11 innings.
The game was tied 1-1 after the regulation seven innings and two more. The International Tie-Breaker came into effect in the 10th, opening the inning with a runner on second, and both teams scored one run to make it 2-2.
In the top of the 11th RC’s Carsyn Michaels belted an RBI triple and Leah Butts ripped a three-run double put the Maroons ahead 6-2. The Eagles rallied for two in the bottom of the inning but RC ace Maggie McCray got out of the jam to seal the win.
McCray broke the ODAC single-game record with 20 strikeouts in this game, including a span where she fanned nine consecutive batters from the fifth to the seventh innings. She tossed 171 pitches in the contest and allowed just three hits, three walks and one unearned run.
With the win the Maroons were matched up with Randolph-Macon for Sunday’s second game. The Yellowjackets had beaten Ferrum in their opener and they kept pace with a 3-0 win over the Maroons. Roanoke had six hits but left one runner on base in the first, second and fourth innings and two in the third and fifth frames.
Bridgewater eliminated Ferrum in their second game Sunday and were matched up with the Maroons again in an elimination game Monday. This was another low-scoring affair and the Maroons pulled it out again, knocking the Eagles out of the tournament with a 2-1 win. McCray allowed just four hits, one walk and one earned run with eight strikeouts to win her 13th game of the season.
Randolph-Macon was still undefeated in the pod so the Maroons needed to beat the Jackets twice to advance. They gave it a good shot but came up short in the first meeting, 2-1 in 10 innings.
RC broke a scoreless tie with a run in the fifth. Randolph-Macon tied the game with a run in the bottom of the sixth and won it on a walk-off suicide squeeze in the 10th.
Baylee Compton threw six innings of five-hit, one-run ball and Lindsay Gedro didn’t allow a hit or an earned run in three and a third innings out of the bullpen for the Maroons. Gracie Ellis pitched a complete game for the Yellowjackets, striking out 11.
With the loss the Maroons finished the season at an even 22-22.
