#3 Longwood Upsets #2 Campbell, Advances to Semifinals
For the fifth consecutive year, Longwood softball advanced to the semifinals of the Big South Championship after upsetting No. 2 seed Campbell 8-4 in the quarterfinal matchup Thursday afternoon at Lancer Field.
Playing in front of their home crowd, the No. 3 seed Lancers (26-26) got a two-run homer from All-Big South second team selection
Karleigh Donovan and a go-ahead RBI double from All-Big South first-teamer Kaylynn "Bug" Batten. Batten's double was one of two hits on the day for the Longwood backstop and jumpstarted a game-breaking five-run fifth inning.
Donovan drove in three runs and scored twice, while freshman
Kasey Carr added a pair of RBI.
Campbell (29-26) entered the game with the Big South's second-best run-scoring offense but ran into a buzzsaw in the form of Lancer ace
Elizabeth McCarthy (13-8), who took over out of the bullpen in the first inning and held the Fighting Camels to four runs over the game's final 6.1 innings.
McCarthy, whose complete game two-hitter Wednesday led the Lancers to a 6-1 win over No. 6 seed Winthrop in the opening round, took over with two outs in the bottom of the first and held Campbell to seven hits the rest of the way. The win was the 74th of her four-year career, moving her into a tie for ninth place on the Big South's all-time list.
The win sets Longwood up for a high-stakes rivalry showdown against top-seeded Liberty Friday at 2:30 p.m. The Lancers edged the Flames two games to one in the regular-season series but will need to slow down an offense that dispatched No. 4 seed Charleston Southern 11-3 Thursday.
The game will air live on ESPN3 and WatchESPN.com.