Lexington, Ky. – The Transylvania softball team completed its trek to winning the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season crown with a pair of five-inning 8-0 wins over the Anderson Ravens on Saturday afternoon at Hall Field.
The Pioneers wrapped up the regular season on a season-high 13 games to clinch a share of first-place in the HCAC standings with Mount St. Joseph with both teams reeling off 14-2 HCAC records. By virtue of tiebreaker, the Pioneers earned the No. 1 seed in the upcoming 2021 HCAC Tournament.
Transylvania signed off on the regular-season portion of the 2021 slate with a record of 26-8 while Anderson fell to 13-19 overall after the sweep by the Pioneers.
The Pioneers clinched the regular-season title for the first time since the 2018 season when they also produced a 14-2 record in HCAC play.
Kameron Bowling earned the win in the 8-0 game one victory, improving her record to 13-6. Bowling tossed 11 strikeouts and only allowed one hit in the season-ending outing.
In game two, Cece Wittry worked her way to the win, growing her record to 11-1. Wittry allowed only two hits while recording five strikeouts in the replicated 8-0 result.
Taylor Senter got the offense started for the Pioneers in the bottom on the first of the Saturday opener as the junior hit a double to right centerfield to bring Lexi Childers home from second base, giving the Pioneers an early 1-0 lead.
Annie Schuck, Abby Frazier, Alyssa Nun, and Kadi Weaver each followed in Senter's footsteps by recording RBI hits to furnish a six-run first inning for the Pioneers.
Frazier smacked a single to lead off the bottom of the third inning and then stole second base. Allyson O'Dell took the opportunity to add to the lead, spearing a double to right centerfield to bring home Frazier for a 7-0 lead. Becca Messing provided a sacrifice fly RBI to score O'Dell from third to surge to the 8-0 lead.
The Pioneers recorded eight hits in the game one win.
Stella Wulker ignited the game two offense in the bottom of the second inning with a double down the left-field line to bring Frazier across home plate for an early 1-0 Pioneer lead.
The Pioneers blew the door open in the bottom of the third with a four-run tally. Messing put the Pioneers in a prime scoring position with a lead-off triple. Childers stepped up to the plate and hit a single towards the shortstop to bring Messing in to score, doubling the Pioneers' lead at 2-0.
With two runners on base, Schuck recorded a two-run single to add to the 4-0 lead. O'Dell smashed an RBI single and the Pioneers took a 5-0 lead at the end of three innings.
Transylvania added three additional runs in the next two innings on a two-run home run by Senter and an RBI single by Nunn to take an 8-0 game two victory.
The Pioneers recorded 12 hits in game two while the Ravens recorded two hits and an error. Frazier went 2 for 3 with a double while the Pioneers totaled five extra-base hits.
Transylvania will host the upcoming HCAC Tournament as the No. 1 seed. The conference tournament will feature No. 2 seed Mount St. Joseph, No. 3 seed Anderson, No. 4 seed Hanover, and No. 5 seed Franklin. Bracketing and matchups will be announced later in the weekend and updated on TransySports.com.
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