After enduring two COVID pauses and numerous other challenges due to weather and injury, the Lady Bisons — who reached the ASUN tournament for the first time since they won it in 2019 — lost in the first round to the Liberty Flames in a best of three series.
Because of COVID-19, the tournament was divided into North and South regions, and each region hosted two quarterfinal matchups at the higher seed’s campus site. The winner of each quarterfinal in the both the North and the South matchup advanced to the four-team, double-elimination tournament hosted by Kennesaw State.
The Lipscomb Lady Bisons came into the tournament with a 17-16 overall and 4-5 conference record, which put them in fourth-place in the Northern division, and they faced off against the overall No. 1 team Liberty in Lynchburg, Virginia, to open the first weekend of tournament play.
The Lady Bisons had were held scoreless when they hosted the Flames just three weeks prior.
In the Friday, May 7, doubleheader, the first game turned into a defensive battle between two of the top pitchers in the conference, Lipscomb’s senior Breana Burke and Liberty’s junior Emily Kirby.
After four solid innings of work, the scoreless game was finally broken up in the fifth when senior infielder Amber Bishop brought home her twin sister senior infielder Autumn Bishop, giving the Flames a 1-0 lead.
The game would stay at 1-0, and the Flames would get the game one win.
Going into Friday’s second game, the Lady Bisons knew it was a win or go home matchup, and in an eight-inning thriller, they stepped up to the challenge.
Burke returned to the mound, because of lack of availability in the Lady Bisons’ bullpen, and pitched her second full game of the day, bringing her totals to 15.0 IP, 287 TP, 68 BF, and 8 K.
In a reversal from game one, game two turned into a shootout with the teams combining for 28 hits and 15 runs. For the Lady Bisons, sophomore outfielder Presley Leebrick and junior outfielder Abby Davis led the way in game two combining to go 7-8 from the plate and adding four runs for Lipscomb.
After Liberty had tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, Leebrick and sophomore designated hitter Kaitlyn Woodside responded with the Lady Bisons’ most crucial run in the top of the eighth, giving the Bisons a one-run advantage that gave them the win and allowed them to tie the series.
With a trip to Kennesaw on the line, Lipscomb and Liberty met one more time Saturday afternoon, May 8. The Lady Bisons once again called on Burke to pitch, and after two strong performances on Friday, Burke struggled in game three.
The Flames came out with a strong offensive performance putting up five runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Meanwhile, Kirby returned to action in game three after sitting out game two and kept the Lady Bisons’ bats quiet.
Burke and the Lipscomb defense bounced back from their first-inning struggles and kept the Flames off the board in the second-through-fifth innings, but another run in the sixth inning, where Liberty put up 3 more runs, gave the Flames the win via the run rule.
With the loss, Lipscomb finishes their season with an 18-18 overall record and loses their chance to win their second consecutive ASUN tournament championship and NCAA tournament berth.
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Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics