BUCKHANNON, W.Va. -- The West Virginia Wesleyan (13-9) softball team defeated Davis & Elkins (10-14) in game one before the Senators won a back-and-forth, high-scoring marathon at Culpepper Field on Tuesday, April 20. 
 
Game One (WVWC 7, D&E 5)
On the first pitch she saw, Brooke Clark crushed a leadoff solo shot over the fence in left center. 

The Senators responded with four runs in the top of the third inning, capped off by a 2-run homer from Lilly Saucedo. Wesleyan began to chip away in the bottom of the third when Kiley Turner brought home Grace Smith on a sac-bunt. Clark helped get another run back in the bottom of the fourth on a single back to the circle as Wesleyan trailed 4-3 after four innings. 

Turner's single to right field in the top of the fifth tied the game before Grace Hightower drove in two more runs on a triple hit over the right fielder's head. King tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth on a single up the middle for a 7-4 advantage heading into the seventh inning. 

Abigail O'Shields (7-4) went the distance striking out five batters while not allowing a walk in the 7-5 victory. Clark and King both finished 3-for-4 at the plate in game one. 

Game Two (D&E 20, WVWC 19)
Game two featured a combined 39 runs, 34 hits and nine errors. 

The Bobcats got off to a terrific start in game two when King blasted a 3-run homer over the left field fence. 

A Molly Osborne sac-fly and Grace Smith single in the bottom of the second put the home team ahead 5-0. With the bases loaded, King sent the ball over the fence in straightaway center for a grand slam. Bella Posey placed a double down the left field line to score Kelly Bourne for a 10-0 lead.

King drove in yet another run on a single to left center as WVWC led 11-2 after three innings. 

Davis & Elkins battled for five runs in the top of the fourth inning. 

Clark was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom half of the fourth before Kaitlyn Rizor cleared the bases with a 3-run double into the gap. The Bobcats were in control, 15-7 heading into the fifth inning, but the Senators did not go away. 

Over the next two innings, D&E evened the score, 15-15. King drew a bases-loaded walk for WVWC in the bottom of the sixth for her ninth RBI of the game. Turner delivered a 2-run single up the middle as the Bobcats took an 18-15 edge into the seventh inning. 

The Senators tied the game in the top of the seventh as the see-saw battle continued after a Morgan Tandrich 2-run homer and Lilly Saucedo game-tying single. Jenna Evans (7-7) kept Wesleyan off of the board in the seventh as the game sailed over the 3-hour mark into extra innings. 

Saucedo delivered again for D&E with a 2-run double into the gap in right center as the Senators claimed their first lead of the game in the top of the eighth. 

WVWC pushed across a run in the bottom of the eighth and put the winning run into scoring positon, but the Davis & Elkins finished off the dramatic come-from-behind performance. 
 
Up Next
The Bobcats play host to Charleston (April 24) and West Virginia State (April 25) in a pair of weekend doubleheaders.