JACKSON, Tenn. - Top seeds, Birmingham-Southern and Trinity advanced to square off in tomorrow's SCAC winners bracket semifinals after picking up wins over Southwestern and Millsaps respectively on day one of the 2012 SCAC Championship. Official Championship Website

Game One Recap
Southwestern was slow to start in game one of the SCAC Conference Tournament on Friday but pulled out the win thanks in large part to a two-out single to right field by pinch hitter Kayla Irvin. Box Score

To open the second inning Southwestern's Haley Hughes reached on an error by Rhodes' first base and Karen Ramirez did her job to advance the runner with a sacrifice bunt. With pinch runner Linsay Biggers in scoring position Ashleigh Scott took a pitch on the outside of the plate to right field, giving the Pirates opportunity to score first. Head Coach Angela Froboese was sending Biggers all the way but a great throw by the Rhodes' right fielder Allycia Kleine gunned down Biggers a step from the plate to keep the game scoreless.

The Lynx were aggressive offensively and able to get runners in scoring position, advancing a runner to third base in the first and second base in the third but SU's defense was able to get out of the jam both times.

At the bottom of the fifth Southwestern finally broke the stalemate. With two outs Taylor Turpin reached on an infield single and stole second to move into scoring position. Amanda Ambrose earned a walk to bring up Kaitlyn Pavlicek. KP sent the ball to left field and with Turpin turning on the afterburners the Lynx had no chance to make a play at the plate to put the Pirates up 1-0 with two innings to go.

With one swing Rhodes tied the game again in the top of the sixth, using a solo shot to left field from Jessica Brown with two outs to tie the game 1-1.

Once again with two outs the Pirates got their magic back. Ramirez led off with a single and Scott moved her to second on a sacrifice bunt. After a ground out to third base by Galloway, Kady Freshour grounded to short and Rhodes decided to make a play on Ramirez at second instead of going for the force at first, allowing the inning to continue. Pinch hitter Kayla Irvin stepped to the plate with confidence and after fouling off four pitches and working to a full count delivered a shot to right field. With Ramirez running hard on the pitch there was no chance for the Lynx to get her out at the plate, allowing SU to take a 2-1 lead into the final frame.

Zomer led off the seventh with a single and was advanced to second on a sacrifice by Kleine and moved to third on a passed ball but Lyndsy Maus took matters in her own hands and struck out the final batter to secure the win.

Six different players recorded one hit in the game for Southwestern. Maus improves to 16-9 on the season allowing just one run on five hits with eight strikeouts and no walks.

SU improves to 24-16 on the year and advance to face #1 seed Birmingham Southern at 4pm. The winner of that game advances to the SCAC semi-final game.

Game Two Recap
Millsaps College sophomore right-hander Laurel Jones fired a complete-game shutout and finished with seven strikeouts to hand Austin College a 8-0 loss in the second game of the 2012 SCAC Tournament on Friday afternoon. Box Score

Austin College started off the top of the first by getting runners on first and third with two outs, but sophomore pitcher Laurel Jones pitched a long got out of the inning after a long duel with Heather Farquhar where she finally got her to line out to first to end the inning.
 
Both pitchers kept each team in check throughout the first three innings. After Jones put the 'Roos down in order in the fourth, Millsaps came to bat as junior Megan Yglesias led it off with a walk followed by a single by newly named Player-of-the-Year, senior Allison Tarbox. Freshman Karen McWilliams came to the plate and belted a homer to get the first runs of the game on the board and put Millsaps up 3-0.
 
The 'Roos threatened with two one out hits in the fifth, but Jones again worked out of it to keep the Majors ahead 3-0.
 
Millsaps started the fifth with a singly by senior Jade Hewitt followed by a bunt attempt by sophomore Logan Dukes which the 'Roos misplayed to make it first and second. Thompson then reached on a bunt single to load it up for Yglesias who cleared the bases with a grand slam, her seventh home run of the season, to make it a 7-0 game.
 
After two quick outs, McWilliams singled to right followed by another single from junior Emily Collins to move the runner to third. Sophomore Allyson Christian came to the plate in a pitch-hitting situation and singled the game winning run as Millsaps defeated Austin College 8-0 in five innings.
 
Jones gets her seventh win of the season, pitching a complete game shutout while giving up only four hits and striking out seven on the afternoon.
 
Yglesias led the way, going 1-for-1 with the grand slam and two walks while McWilliams added a 2-for-3 game with three RBIs and two runs scored.

Game Three Recap
Five of the combined seven runs scored by Southwestern and Birmingham-Southern in game three of the SCAC Softball Tournament came off two swings of the bat with each team posting a multi-run homerun in the game. BSC scored in the bottom of the sixth to claim the lead and hand SU a 4-3 loss. Box Score 

BSC, the top seed in the East Division, moves to 31-8 on the season, while the Pirates, the second seed in the West, fall to 24-17.

A two-run homerun by junior Brittany Berkopec in the first inning gave the Panthers an early 2-0 lead, shocking the Pirates at the outset of the game.

A trio of infield singles loaded the bases for Southwestern with one out in the top of the second, giving them an opportunity to even the count. BSC's hurler, senior Ronni Ferris, got out of the jam with two consecutive strikeouts to allow the Panthers to keep the 2-0 lead.

BSC added to their lead in the second on an RBI grounder to the right side to bring in freshman Joanna Jernigan to put the Panthers up 3-0.

One swing from Haley Hughes brought the game back even in the third. Taylor Turpinled off with a single and advanced to third on a single to right field by Kaitlyn Pavlicek. Pavlicek stole second, putting two runners in scoring position for power-hitter Haley Hughes. It turned out that it didn't matter where the runners were as Hughes hit a shot to left field that the crowd knew was out of the park as soon as it left her bat, tying the game at 3-3.

Defenses took control as the game wound to a conclusion, with sporadic base runners and no real threat to score from either team through five and a half. Birmingham-Southern took control after junior Danielle Rucker reached on a walk and stole second base to move into scoring position with two outs. Senior Ashley Bice drove a fastball into centerfield to bring in the go-ahead run for BSC 4-3 with one inning to play.

Southwestern managed to get runners on base but as was the case most of the game had trouble bringing them in as they fell 4-3.

Pavlicek garnered the loss despite a strong outing, allowing two runs on six hits. Freshman Bethany Fronk earned the win with 3.2 innings on the mound, allowing no runs and one hit.

Turpin and Hughes both posted two hit games while three Panthers - Bice and freshmen Erin Lopez and Taylor Bassett - recorded two hits each.

Game Four Recap
The Trinity Tiger softball team scored a 1-0 win over Millsaps College at the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship Tournament on Friday evening. Box Score

Trinity moved to 27-12 with the victory, which is just two wins shy of the Tiger softball record for wins in a season.

The Tigers scored the only run of the ball game in the bottom of the sixth, as Karen MacPherson started off the inning with a bunt single.  After stealing second base, Caitlynn Dykes executed a sacrifice bunt to move MacPherson to third with just one out.

Megan Russell then hit a shallow fly ball to center field, but MacPherson's speed and a nifty slide beat the tag by the catcher, and put the Tigers on top for good.

Both offenses were held to just two hits in the game, resulting in a classic pitcher's duel.  Sydney Friday improved to 15-6 this season with the win, tossing a two-hit shutout with five strikeouts.

Friday didn't allow a hit after the fourth inning, but did run into trouble in the top of the sixth inning.  She issued her third walk of the inning with just one out, but induced two ground balls to short to keep the game scoreless - setting up the game-winning run in the bottom of the inning.

MacPherson and Russell collected the only hits of the game for Trinity, also combining to score the game's only run.

The tournament's top two seeds will meet tomorrow, as Trinity will face Birmingham-Southern at 2:00 p.m.  The winner moves on to the SCAC Championship game on Sunday, while the losing team will play later that evening for a chance to move on to the final day.

To view the official website for the 2012 SCAC Softball Touranament which includes interviews from coaches and student-athletes covering all of today's action, click here.