WINGATE, N.C. - A historic season came to an end on Saturday for the fifth-seeded Lander Softball team as they fell to the top-seed and host, Wingate Bulldogs, 4-3 at the Wingate Softball Complex in a Southeast Regional elimination game.
The loss ends Lander's season at 33-18 while Wingate improved to 48-10 and advanced to face four-seed Lenoir-Rhyne in the Regional Championship.
The game started on Friday afternoon with Lander as the designated home team, decided via coin flip.
As they had in the two games previous, Lander put up two runs in the first inning and this time it was Logan Coward who delivered the two-RBI single in the bottom of the first to give the Bearcats a 2-0 lead.Â
Lander then added another run in the bottom of the fourth off a Wingate error to make it 3-0.
Bailey Pattison was able to hold the Bulldogs off the scoreboard for the first four innings and was set to take the circle for the fifth before the game was delayed and eventually suspended due to lightning in the area.
After play resumed on Saturday, Pattison retired the Bulldogs with ease in the fifth before running into trouble in the sixth. Wingate hit a two-run home run two batters in and then loaded the bases before a Lander error allowed two more runs to score and give the Bulldogs a 4-3 lead.
Lander got the tying run to third in the bottom of the sixth but couldn't capitalize and in the seventh Emily Allen came within feet of a walk-off home run but the ball died right before the wall and Wingate was able to see out the win.
