The Greenville University Lady Panthers softball team bounced back from and 11-2 loss to Spalding in the SLIAC Softball Tournament to then knock off Spalding 8-7 in the “If Needed” game to claim their third straight conference championship. The Panthers started conference tournament play on Thursday with an 11-3 win over Blackburn in 6 innings and then grabbed a 6-0 shutout win over Westminster College. That put them into the Championship Series at 2-0 to take on Spalding University came in at 2-1. Spalding ran away from Greenville with a 9-run fifth inning to beat the Panthers 11-2 putting both teams with one loss in the tournament at 2-1 to force the “If Needed” Championship Game. GU took an early 1-0 first inning lead but Spalding pulled ahead 2-1 in the top of the second inning. The lead was short lived a GU answered with a run in the bottom of the second to tie the game up at 2-2 and then retook the lead 3-2 in the bottom of the third inning. Again it was a short lead as Spalding tied the game at 3-3 in the fourth and extended their lead over the Panthers to 6-3 with three runs in the top of the fifth inning and GU was only able to close it to a 6-4 ballgame in the bottom half of the inning. Spalding edged their lead out to 7-4 but the Panthers kept on fighting and pushed three runs across the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning to again tie the game up, this time at 7-7. GU held Spalding scoreless in the top of the seventh inning, giving the Panthers the chance to walk it off in the bottom half of the seventh. That is exactly what GU did with an RBI single bringing in the winning run as the Panthers took the Championship, 8-7. The Championship win makes GU an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division III Softball Tournament and the Panthers will find out today where they will be headed and who they will face in the Regionals that will be held on May 14 and 15.
South Central grad Brooklyn Garrett started at third base for the Panthers in all four games of the SLIAC Tournament while Vandalia grad Madison Lupton served as a pinch runner for GU in the tournament.
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