The EMU softball women made some noise at the ODAC Tournament in Salem on Friday, but were sent home with a pair of one-run losses.  The Royals end the year at 16-14, including a 9-11 mark in the ODAC during the season.

Lynchburg 4, EMU 3
The tourney opener was full of chances for both teams.  Vivian Maddox (Rustburg, Va./Brookville) led off the game with a double and the Royals grabbed a 1-0 lead on Aislinn Lucas' (Grottoes, Va./Fort Defiance) two-out RBI single.  LC led off their half of the first with a triple and ended up with two runs to jump into the lead.

The Hornets made it 4-1 in the third, scoring twice with the aid of a walk and two wild pitches.

Lucas led off the fourth with a single and the women rallied.  With two runners on, Nicolette Cuevas (Suffolk, Va./King's Fork) crushed a pitch down the left field line.  The strong wind blowing in from left kept the ball in the park, but it still dropped for an RBI double.  The gusty wind proved a key play, however, as a strikeout and grounder left two runners in scoring position and the women trailing 4-2.

EMU left two more on base in the sixth, but a one-out infield single got the Royals going in the seventh.  Lucas hit an RBI single, getting the women within 4-3, before Angelia Miller (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) struck out to end the game.

The women out-hit Lynchburg 9-7.  Lucas was the big swinger, going 3-4 with two RBIs and a run.  Cuevas finished 2-3 with an RBI while Jordan Aylor (Madison, Va./Madison County) scored twice.

Cara Neikirk (Salem, Va./Glenvar) gave up four runs in 2.1 innings to fall to 4-3 with the loss.  Lauren Seale (Madison, Va./Madison County) pitched 3.2 frames of scoreless relief.

Emory & Henry 2, EMU 1 – 11 innings
After a short 30-minute break, the Royals returned to the field in an elimination game and quickly locked up with Emory & Henry in a classic battle over-flowing with tight plays and drama.

Both teams were getting hits and runners early, but the score was locked at 0-0 until the fifth.  Cuevas led off the top of the frame with a single and eventually score on a two-out single from Danyele Smith (Broadway, Va./Broadway).  But the Wasps got the run back in the bottom of the inning, as a leadoff double came home on a sacrifice fly.

Aylor hit a one-out double in the seventh, but was left stranded as the game lingered into extra innings.  There the tension quickly heightened as the international tie-breaker rule started each at-bat with a runner on second.

A pair of outstanding two-out defensive plays kept EMU from scoring in their first two chances, once on Haley Thomas' (Salem, Va./Salem) sinking liner in right and then on a bang-bang snag of Aylor's rocket shot to third.

With runners on the corners in the 10th, the Royals tried a suicide squeeze, but the pitcher gunned down Aylor at the plate.

Finally in the 11th the Wasps got the game-winner.  With the bases loaded and nobody out, a floating single to center froze the runners.  When it dropped in all eyes turned to home plate as the runners needed to advance.  The force out attempt was a fraction late as EHC scored for the walk-off win.

The Royals again out-hit their opponents, this time 11-7.  They also left 14 runners on base.

Mariah Foltz (Broadway, Va./Broadway) was 3-5 with a double and Smith finished 2-3 with two intentional walks and an RBI.

Seale gave a gutsy performance in the circle, pitching the entire game after throwing 3.2 innings against LC.  The freshman struck out five in the tough loss, falling to 5-5 on the year.