The #6-seed Presbyterian College softball team's tremendous run through the Big South Tournament ended in the championship game with a 4-0 loss to #1 Longwood Sunday afternoon in Buies Creek, N.C.
Longwood, which improves to 33-23, earns the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and will wait word on its opponent at 10 p.m. Sunday on the selection show on ESPNU. PC finishes the season at 25-25.
Earning All-Tournament honors were Kensley Loudermelk, Hope Rogers and Erin Ruff.
Jill McLean opened the game for the third time in a row by reaching base, this time off a wild pitch after she struck out swinging. Jenna Harris and Shelby Petik moved her to third off a sacrifice bunt and ground out, but that was as far as she would get as the last batter grounded out for the third out.
Longwood came out of the gate swinging. After Megan Baltzell earned a walk, Chelsea Sciacca took the first pitch over the right field wall, her 11th home run of the season, to give the Lancers the early 2-0 lead. Glenn Walters made it 3-0 two batters later with a solo shot to right, her eighth.
While PC remained hitless through two innings, Longwood collected one more with a Katie Shinrock single to left. The next at-bat Casey Lifsey launched a shot to left that was caught at the fence by Petik. She laced the ball back to first and got out Shinrock before she could get back to the base for the inning-ending double-play.
After Justina Augustine led off the third with a double, Ruff made two great stops with after Baltzell popped up to her and Sciacca's sharp grounder was cut off by the second baseman. Erin Murphy's line to left was handled easily by Petik for the third out.
Ruff gave PC its first hit of the game with a single through the right side. She was advanced to second off a sacrifice bunt, but the next two batters grounded out to end the potential rally.
When Longwood put two runners on base in the bottom of the fourth the PC defense came up big with a long fly out to center caught by McLean. Loudermelk struck out her fourth batter of the game to head into the fifth inning with Longwood still holding on to the 3-0 lead.
After a quiet top of the fifth for PC, Baltzell gave Longwood a 4-0 lead with a solo shot to right, her 27th of the season. The Lancers would load the bases with two outs but Loudermelk came through again with a strike out to end the threat.
With two outs in the top of the sixth, Ruff gave PC its second hit of the game with an infield single to second. Kersten Legacki reached on an error, but the next batter grounded out to the pitcher to stop the rally before it started.
Longwood went down in order in the bottom of the sixth to set up PC's last chance to rally back. Erin Taylor led off the top of the seventh with a single up the middle. Katie Brown followed it up with another base hit to put runners on base. Libby Morris struck out the next two batters, however. Jenna Harris hit a hard shot that almost made it through the left side, but Longwood's Emily Murphy made a tremendous stop and tossed the ball to second for the final out of the game.
Pacing PC offensively was Ruff with her two hits. Taylor and Brown each added one as the team came away with four on the afternoon. Loudermelk, who moved to 15-10 on the year, struck out six, while giving up four runs off six hits. All runs came off three home runs in the game.
Six different Lancers recorded hits, with Sciacca leading in RBI with two. Morris went to 9-7 with the shutout win. She struck out seven and gave up just four hits on the day.
