Lady Cavs Take Softball Regional, Earn Return Trip to Championships

May 10, 2007
Boxscore

2007 NAIA Region XII Champions (Photo courtesy of Ray Ellis, proud father of Hannah)

Athens, TN – The UVA-Wise softball team punched its ticket for a second time in three years to the NAIA National Championships by defeating Milligan College, 4-3, with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh in the Region XII championship.

The Lady Cavs (32-23) made its first NAIA National Championships appearance two years ago in 2005. A year ago, UVA-Wise was upset in the region as it lost in the loser’s bracket final after being the top seed heading into the two day event.

Trailing 3-2 after six innings, Mary Wilson (Va. Beach, VA) led off the top of the final frame with her fifth homer of the year to tie the contest. Sarah Frazier (Big Stone Gap, VA) followed with a single and stole second base. Two batters later, Amber Harvey (Millboro, VA) singled up the middle to plate Frazier with the go ahead run, 4-3.

Tori Flint (Charlottesville, VA) pitched a perfect bottom of the seventh against the bottom half of the Milligan (35-26) lineup to end the game and send UVA-Wise back to the softball national championships.

The Lady Cavs posted five hits in the game. Wilson lined her solo homer and Alicia King (Castlewood, VA) sliced a double as the extra base hits. Shelley Newton (Chesapeake, VA), Harvey and Frazier singled.

UVA-Wise broke onto the scoreboard in the second. King double before advancing and scoring on wild pitches by Maegan Hambrick of Milligan. Britney Lawson (Duffield, VA) added a second tally in the third. She reached on an error and scored two batters later on a Newton single for a 2-0 score.

Milligan was able to tie the game 2-2 with a pair of run in the fourth. The Lady Buffs edged ahead, 3-2, with a single run in the home sixth. The advantage would be short lived as the Lady Cavs scored the deciding runs in the visiting seventh.

Lawson and Newton were picked to the All-Region XII squad. It was Newton’s third all-region selection. Lady Cavs head coach Tori Raby-Gentry earned the Region Coach of the Year acclaim.

UVA-Wise will next move to Pool Play at the NAIA National Championships starting on Friday, May 18th in Decatur, Alabama.

V-W 011 000 2 4-5-1
Mill 000 201 0 3-2-3

WP: Flint C-Newton
LP: Hambrick C-White
2B: King (V-W); HR: Wilson (V-W)