DAHLONEGA, Ga. - The Bearcats punched their ticket to Saturday's Dahlonega Regional Final with an 8-7 victory over No. 8 seed Lincoln Memorial on Friday afternoon in the winner's bracket game of the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional.
With the win, Lander improved to 35-19 overall and moved within one victory of advancing to the NCAA Division II Southeast Super Regionals for the first time in program history.
Lander wasted no time offensively, scoring twice in the opening inning on sacrifice flies from Reagan Hill and Bella Angeli to take an early 2-0 lead.
The Bearcats exploded for five more runs in the second inning to stretch the advantage to 7-0. Emorie Anderson opened the inning with a solo home run, the second of her career, before Savanna Price added an RBI single. Hill later drove in another run with a double, and Samantha Bumgarner capped the inning with a two-run single through the right side.
Lincoln Memorial answered with two runs in the bottom of the second before capitalizing on multiple Lander miscues in the third inning to score four unearned runs and cut the deficit to 7-6.
The Railsplitters tied the game in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly, but the Bearcats responded immediately in the fifth.
Lander answered immediately in the fifth inning. After Anderson reached on a hit-by-pitch, Kara VonAchen and Emily Allen delivered back-to-back singles to load the bases before Price drove in the eventual game-winning run with an RBI single to shortstop, giving the Bearcats an 8-7 lead.
Mattye Geddings, coming off a complete-game 149-pitch performance in Thursday's NCAA Tournament opener, took over in relief and shut the door from there. The senior right-hander allowed just one run across 4.1 innings while surrendering only three hits to earn her 19th win of the season.
Lander totaled 13 hits in the victory, led by Price and Allen with three hits apiece. Price drove in two runs and scored twice, while Hill added two hits and two RBIs. VonAchen and Hill also recorded a multi-hit game with two hits apiece.
Paige Sherman got the start in the circle for the Bearcats, allowing six runs, none earned, across 2.2 innings before Geddings entered in relief.
Hear from Head Coach Maddie Gibbs following Friday's NCAA Southeast Regional win over Lincoln Memorial:
Lander will now face No. 1 seed, regional host and No. 3 nationally ranked North Georgia at noon on Saturday in the Dahlonega Regional Final with a trip to the NCAA Division II Southeast Super Regionals on the line.
