VALDOSTA, Ga. – Holli Davis belted a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Barry University softball team (44-17) to a 6-4 win over the Rollins Tars (40-16) on Friday afternoon in game seven of the NCAA South Region Softball Tournament hosted by Valdosta State.

 

After two scoreless innings to start, Barry finally managed to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third. Brittany Anderson reached first on a one-out free pass and Shyla Rider followed with a single to leftfield to put runners at first and second. Cristina DeTagle sacrificed the runners to second and Ashley Loose followed with a two-out RBI triple to plate both Anderson and Rider for the lead.

 

The Buccaneers added another run in the bottom of the fourth to extend their lead to 3-0. Maile Keeney reached on a leadoff single to start the inning. Danielle Rezendes pinch ran for Keeney and later scored on a throwing error by Tar catcher Victoria Rudolph.

 

In the top of the fifth, Rollins cut into the Buccaneer lead scoring two runs. Ingrid Schumacher led off with a single, then Devon Kontos and Lauren Winney followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases. Sherri Rabenold plated the Tars' first run on a sacrifice fly to left field to narrow the Buccaneer lead by one run. Barry's Casey Pyron relieved starting pitcher Amber Jack in the inning and gave up a bases loaded walk to Jamie Rausch to score Kontos, which cut Barry's lead to 3-2.

 

The Buccaneers narrowly missed out on a scoring opportunity in the fifth after loading the bases on three consecutive hits. However, Rollins capitalized on the opportunity in the top of the next inning and scored two runs to take a 4-3 lead. Schumacher reached on a Buccaneer fielding error and was sacrificed to second base by Kontos. Winney then doubled off the third base bag to put runners in at second and third and Rabenold followed with a two-RBI single that plated Schumacher and Winney for the go ahead score.

 

With only three chances left to make something happen, the Buccaneers scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to win the game. DeTagle reached on a leadoff single and was sacrificed to second by Loose. She then advanced to third on Shumacher's wild pitch. With one out, head coach Danielle Penner called for the suicide sqeeze play which scored DeTagle for the tie.

 

"With the game on the line, it was the right type of situation to try the squeeze bunt. The critical part was for all parties to fully buy in to it and a lot of things have to go right for that to work. I had tremendous faith in our players that they could come through,” Penner said.

 

Amanda Goelz laid down the perfect bunt for the squeeze that plated DeTagle. However, with two out, Davis followed with the two-run walk-off home run to give Barry a 6-4 come-from-behind win.

 

"All I wanted to do on the first pitch was to make contact with the ball,” Barry third baseman Davis said. “When I realized it was over the fence I got goose bumps the whole way around the bases. I think eating my skittles right before the at-bat was why I hit the homer."

 

The Buccaneers used three pitchers in the win. Jack earned the start and went 4.2 innings allowing seven hits, two runs, one walk and a strikeout. Pyron relieved Jack in the fifth and went one inning, allowed three hits, two unearned runs and walked one. Liz Bennett (16-4) tossed the final 1.1 innings of two-hit shutout ball and struck out three to earn the win for Barry. Rollins starter Nicole Anderson gave up three runs, seven hits and struck out six in 4.1 innings, while Schumacher (14-4) allowed three runs on four hits in the Tars' loss.

 

Both teams combined for 23 hits in the game. Barry recorded 11 led by Rider, Loose, Keeney and Anderson all with two. Loose and Davis added a pair of RBI. Rachael Almengaul, Stacy Sanders, and Winney added to the 12-hit total for the Tars, while Rabenold drove in three runs.

 

The Buccaneers will now advance to the next round of the NCAA South Regional tournament to face the winner between Valdosta State/Florida Southern game played a 6:30 on Friday night.

 

 

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Rollins............. 000 022 0 -  4 12  1      (40-16)

Barry............... 002 100 3 -  6 11  1      (44-17)

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Pitchers: Rollins - Nicole Anderson; Ingrid Schumacher(5). Barry - Amber Jack; Casey Pyron(5);

Liz Bennett(6).

Win-Liz Bennett(16-4)  Loss-Ingrid Schumacher(14-4)  T-1:48  A-156

HR BUS - Holli Davis (2).

Game: SB0511