CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College softball team found themselves in another battle of one-upmanship in the circle on a sunny afternoon in Clinton, unable to overcome a recent offensive funk in a 5-0 loss to Queens on Sunday. Despite a nearly-even balance in the hits department, PC couldn't bring any of its seven base-runners home in the defensive grinder, hampering an otherwise superb effort from ace Jenna Greene.

Striking out a double-digit number of batters for the 22^nd time in her Blue Hose tenure (11), Greene's lone hiccup occurred in the top of the 3^rd, not responsible for Queen's remaining three scores in the 5^th due to an infield error.

Presbyterian's vaunted defensive core performed mostly up to par in the first of four matchups with the Royals from now through next Sunday, although the offense never generated enough consistency to break through despite some enticing chances.
 
NOTABLES
- Similar to the aftermath of last Friday's split against Buffalo, the Blue Hose's overall ERA maintains a healthy number even in defeat (1.27), with Greene submitting her ninth consecutive complete game over her senior season. Sunday's affair in Clinton represented the 50^th time in her career that Greene tossed a full outing without ever departing, beginning to run away with the school's all-time strikeout tally, sending 20 batters packing over the last two contests.

- Overall, the fourth-year commander has recorded 533 K's since 2020, walking only one of 28 batters faced this afternoon. On the flip side of the coin, Queens starter Autumn Courtney was able to muster her sixth win by facing the exact same number of combatants, striking out five and keeping PC off the board with a bend-but-don't-break approach.

- Shortstop Layna Johnson rattled off two hits against Courtney in the nine-hole in the 3^rd and 5^th innings, reaching base for a third time on a Queens fielding mishap during the bottom of the 7^th. Ciara Hanson and Rebecca Clark lined up a base hit each in the seven and eight slots through the order, as did the first/second baseman combo of Jillian Hewes and Kaitlyn Tucker.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Once the Royals struck first in the 3^rd stanza, that lead grew to its resting place of five after capitalizing on Presbyterian's two 5^th-inning flubs, deterring any comeback tries from that point to seize the win. The Blue Hose found their likeliest chance of a rally in the bottom of the third, then only trailing by a deuce, but grounded into two straight fielder's choice scenarios and a swinging strikeout that left each manned base marooned.

- Clark has steadily been building a consistent hitting streak in the early portion of her senior stint, notching one connection in five of her last six appearances while keeping a perfect fielding percentage intact (1.000) beside 41 putouts at leftfield.

- Tucker, meanwhile, has published exactly half of her 16 hits on the season over the last eight meetings, totaling five of them in the Blue Hose's previous three encounters. The junior and Johnson have collected 32 assists between them as parallel infield mates.

- Five of the last seven outs taken from PC came on a Greene K, however the bottom of the 7^th featured three putouts all from Royals' shortstop Kayla Smith to deny the rally.
 
UP NEXT
- Almost halfway through a seven-game series of home bouts as nonconference play keeps on chugging, head coach David Williams' group will enact a quick turnaround before their next date on Tuesday, a doubleheader against in-state foe Furman.

- It hasn't been smooth sailing for the Paladins as of late, dropping 10 consecutive games in as many days to sit at 4-15 on the semester. Furman has only managed one true road victory at this stage of the campaign (an 11-4 result over Gardner-Webb in Game 2 of a DH), however falling by an average margin of just two runs during the aforementioned losing streak.

- Part I of Tuesday's twinbill is scheduled for a 4:00 p.m. start, lining up the second half at approximately 6:00.