McCarley Thomas mowed down Golden Eagle batters from the pitching circle all afternoon as Lipscomb softball (26-9) defeated Tennessee Tech 7-2 in a non-conference matchup at Draper Diamond on Wednesday.
Thomas gave up three hits in seven innings to the boom-or-bust Golden Eagles hitters. Tennessee Tech (9-20) is batting just .218 as a team this season, but 41% of the Golden Eagles’ hits go for extra bases, including 34 home runs.
“You certainly don’t want to stay on one plane and just go in-and-out to a team like that or they’re just going to tee off,” coach Kristin Ryman said. “She was a good matchup for them, being able to mix planes and speeds.”
Golden Eagle leadoff batter Aalia Bivens led the game with a no-hop double to the wall in dead center and scored on a squeeze bunt later in the inning. Then Thomas faced 15 batters without giving up a hit until Bivens homered in the sixth.
An infield single in the seventh and a pair of walks were the only other blemishes on Thomas’s eighth win of the season.
Down 1-0 in the bottom of the first, the Bisons pushed across an unearned run on Caitlin Plocheck’s single to tie the game, then took over the lead in the second. Shortstop Peyton Ward singled, stole second, then scored on Abby Fenichel’s single.
Then Lipscomb broke the game open—and chased Golden Eagles starter Kayla Hughes, who earned the loss—in the bottom of the fourth, a three-run inning capped by Plocheck’s two-run double, her second run-scoring hit of the day.
The junior batted in three runs to bring her season total to 22. The first baseman’s .623 slugging percentage ranks fifth in the ASUN.
Catcher Abby Fenichel also drove in three runs, including a two-run bomb in the sixth.
Ward stole her team-leading 15th and 16th bases of the season and scored two runs.
“Anytime we play well in the midweek, it’s always a good boost going into the weekend,” coach Ryman said. “We need to have a good day of practice tomorrow, projected toward getting ready for Jacksonville, then go down there and do what we can do.”
The Bisons travel to Jacksonville University for a three-game ASUN conference series this weekend. Tennessee Tech will play a conference doubleheader with Austin Peay State University at home on Saturday.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics