Riding a 12-game winning streak into a big weekend, the Eastern Mennonite softball team settled for a split at third-place Virginia Wesleyan. The Lady Royals pushed the streak to 13 with a 4-1 win in game one, before giving up a lead in a game-two loss.

EMU 4, Virginia Wesleyan 1
Box Score
Jessica Blosser (Crimora, Va./Wilson Memorial) led off the game by reaching on an error and the women made VWC pay. Molly Smith (Elkton, Va./Spotswood) smacked a two-out double to bring in Blosser, giving EMU a 1-0 lead which it held until the fifth inning.

The Lady Royals then added three in the fifth. Blosser started the rally with a one-out single, and brought in one on an error, another on a wild pitch and the third on a single from Smith.

The Marlins go two runners on in the sixth and loaded the bases in the seventh, but only scored once in the 4-1 EMU win.

Smith started on the mound and combined with Lisa Lee (Buckingham, Va./Buckingham County) for the win. Smith scatted six hits over 3-1/3 innings and went to 7-3 on the year. Lee got her second save of the year, allowing the one run over 3-2/3 innings.

Blosser was 2-3 from the plate and scored two runs. Smith was also 2-3 with two RBIs.

Virginia Wesleyan 9, EMU 5
Box Score
Blosser doubled to lead off game two and started another rally. One run scored on a sacrifice fly from Courtney Allman (Weyers Cave, Va./Fort Defiance) but the Lady Royals left the bases loaded.

VWC tied the game with a run in the bottom of the first before EMU took a big lead with a two-out rally in the third. All of the women's runs were unearned thanks to a pair of Marlins' errors. Jessica Sullivan (Midlothian, Va./Manchester) pushed the lead to 5-1 with a two-run single.

The home team scored three runs in the bottom of the third and then tied it with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.

Virginia Wesleyan then opened the sixth with a pair of walks and plated four runs to grab a 9-5 lead. The Lady Royals went down in order in their final at-bat, taking their first loss in three weeks.

Smith and Lee again split the pitching duties, with Lee taking the loss. She was also the only multi-hit woman, going 2-4 from the plate with a run scored.

Sullivan, Blosser and Brooke Hensley (Elkton, Va./Spotswood) had the other hits for EMU.

With the split, Eastern Mennonite's winning streak ends after 13 straight victories. The Lady Royals settle at 18-8 overall and 9-1 in the ODAC and take on Randolph-Macon Sunday afternoon in Ashland.