WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. – Ravens Softball had its season come to an end in the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round on Tuesday evening.
The No. 4 seed Ravens (34-20) lost to the No. 2 seed Saint Xavier University Cougars, 7-3.
The Ravens plated a run in the top of the first to open the scoring.
Rhiannon Martin worked a two-out walk and
Amanda Waymire followed with her own walk to put runners on first and second.
Megan Forsman continued her hot hitting in the national tournament by singling down the right field line, driving in Martin to put the Ravens up 1-0. Forsman finished the tournament with 7 hits.
The Cougars answered in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game at 1-1, but
Abby Reynolds helped limit SXU to just the 1 run when she made a diving catch in left field.
The score remained level until the bottom of the fourth when Saint Xavier scored 3 runs. The Cougars didn't hit Ravens pitcher
Bailey Selvage hard in the inning, but placed their contact well to put baserunners on and take a 4-1 lead.
Saint Xavier added another run in the fifth inning, but it could have been worse. The Cougars had the bases loaded with no outs against
Lily SinghDhillon, but the Ravens turned a line drive into a double play and then SinghDhillon got a strikeout to get out of the jam without any further damage.
After a scoreless Ravens top of the sixth inning,
Lacey Foster came on in relief of SinghDhillon with the bases loaded and 1 out. Foster fielded a ground ball and got the force out at home for the second out, then forced another ground ball out to keep the Cougars from extending their lead.
The Ravens went down with a fight in the top of the seventh inning. After the first two batters were retired,
Reagan Enright worked a walk and was pinch-ran for with
Lilee Keller. Reynolds forced another walk, and both Keller and Reynolds scored on a single by
Ashley Rindom, which was just the second hit of the day for the Ravens. Rindom tried to advance to second on the throw home, but was tagged out to end the game.
Selvage (17-10) picked up the loss for the Ravens, giving up 5 runs in 4 innings of work.
It was the second time the Ravens program qualified for the NAIA National Tournament and the team picked up their second win in the tournament with their victory over Oakland City University on Monday. The Ravens also qualified in 2024 and went 1-2 that year.
