Milligan College Buffaloes

Savannah, Ga. (March 10, 2008) ---The Milligan College Softball team traveled to Savannah College of Art and Design this past week to face some tough competition in the Smash Hit Tournament. The Lady Buffs played hard and finished the tournament with a 3-4 record. The team face competition ranging from NCAA Division 2 schools to top Junior College teams.

Game 1 Georgetown College 4-2

The Lady Buffs started the tournament facing the Tigers. Kayla Walker (Tracy, Calif.) took the mound for the entire game and recorded three strikeouts, no walks, and gave up seven hits. Jessica Blevins (Watagua, Tenn.) lead the team in hitting, going 1-2 at the plate. Five of Milligan's players hit 1-3, including Ellyn Sapp (Johnson City, Tenn.), Leah White (Fall Branch, Tenn.), Melanie Strickler (Kingsport, Tenn.), Holly Napier (Pennington Gap, Va.), and Walker . Milligan lead the Tigers going into until the fifth inning and a few Buffs errors allowed the other team to score the winning runs.

Game 2 Mount Olive College 3-2

Later the first day, Buffs took on the Div.II school and defeated them. Freshman Sidney Burns (Tallahassee, Fl.) recorded the win, pitching all seven innings. Burns had 11 strikeouts and only five hits while walking zero batters. Leah White and Mallory Tincher (Jacksonville, Fla.) lead the team at the plate, swinging 2-3. Jesa Russel (New Market, Tenn.) also contributed with one hit in three at-bats. The team recorded six total hits and only one error for the game.

Game 3 Northwood University 6-3

The Lady Buffs started Day Two off in style with a convincing win over Northwood University . Milligan threw all three pitchers against the Seahawks. Ryann Musick (Elizabethton, Tenn.) got the start and pitched four innings, recording two strike outs. Kayla Walker received the win for the Buffs in two innings of work of one strikeout and one hit. Sidney Burns got the save for pitching in one inning with one strikeout and no hits. Ellyn Sapp lead the team in hitting, going 1-1 and walking three times. Holly Napier had a hot bat and went 2-4 while Mallory Tincher followed up getting one hit in two at-bats. The Lady Buffs played hard defense the whole game and committed no errors.

Game 4 Mount Olive College 8-4

Day Three started off well for the Lady Buffs again. They defeated Mount Olive once more with a score of 8-4. Leah White lead the team with three strong clutch hits in three at-bats, including two doubles. White also drove in two runs. Melanie Strickler got one hit in two turns at the plate. Jesa Russell and Holly Napier helped the team out by each going 1-3 in the box. The team got nine hits total on the day. Burns had the mound for the Lady Buffs and struck nine players out but gave up seven hits for the opponents. The Lady Buffs defense was strong behind Burns and put the runners away.

The Lady Buffs moved on to play the tournament hosts, SCAD. The Lady Buffs played strong defense behind starting pitcher Ryann Musick . The Lady Buffs held SCAD, a strong hitting team, to only one run until the fifth inning. Musick sent seven players back to the dugout without hits and only gave up six hits. Jessica Blevins lead the teams batting going 2-3 with two doubles. Ellyn Sapp got the only other Milligan hit, going 1-3.

Game 6 Bethel College 1-6

Milligan took on the tournament hitting leader with Ryann Musick and Kayla Walker splitting the mound. Musick was given the loss though she only gave up five hits and struck out five batters. Sidney Burns lead the team at the plate going 1-2 while Heather Poindexter (Germanton, N.C.), Jessica Blevins, and Holly Napier all went 1-3. Musick also got one hit in one at-bat for the game.

Game 7 Reinhardt College 7-8

Strong pitching and clutching hitting took the Lady Buffs all the way into the 12th inning of their last game in Georgia . Sidney Burns took the mound for the entire game recording an unprecedented 14 strikeouts and giving up nine hits. Burns also got the Buffs on the board and in the lead with a tree-run homerun in the fourth inning. Reinhardt got the tying run in the seventh inning to take the game into the extra time. The game became tied again in the 10th inning (5-5) and again in the 11th inning (6-6) and finally in the 12th inning (7-7). Reinhardt received the final base hit needed to score the winning run in the end of the 12th inning. The two teams traded base hit for base hit, run for run the entire game. Milligan got a total of eight hits for the day and Reinhardt received nine. Leading at the plate was Milligan's Jessica Blevins, who went 2-4. Behind her came Leah White, who hit 2-6 and Holly Napier, who went 2-5. White and Blevins both recorded doubles in the extra innings to bring in the necessary runs. Blevins hit in two funs and Burns hit in three. It was an over all hard fought game that was an interesting game to watch.

Head Coach Wes Holly commented on the effort of his team, “The girls played really hard and really well. The competition was tough and was good experience for our younger players. We had our moments of good play and of bad play. We went down there to prepare for our upcoming conference games, which we did well. I am proud of the effort my girls put in.”

The Lady Buffs have their home opener on Thursday, March, 13, 2008, against North Greenville University .