Longwood Wins 2017 Big South Softball Championship
Big South Championship Most Valuable Player
Elizabeth McCarthy fired her second complete game of the tournament and held top-seeded Liberty to two runs in the title game to lift third-seeded Longwood to its third straight Big South Championship Sunday afternoon at Lancer Field.
Pitching in the final Big South Championship tournament of her storied four-year career, McCarthy (14-8) shut down the conference's top offense to lead the Lancers (28-27) to a championship-clinching 4-2 win over the Flames. The win marked Longwood's fourth Big South title in five years as a member of the league and the third for McCarthy and senior teammates
Justina Augustine and
Jenna Carnes.
Augustine, catcher
Kaylynn Batten and
Karleigh Donovan earned spots on the Big South All-Tournament Team alongside McCarthy.
McCarthy's seven-inning start punctuated a workhorse tournament for the four-time All-Big South first-team pick, who threw 24.1 of the team's 34.0 innings in a five-day span. In Sunday's winner-take-all showdown with the regular-season champion Flames (38-22), McCarthy struck out four and held Liberty to lone runs in the second and sixth innings, stifling an offense that led the Big South in batting average, slugging percentage, runs scored, hits, doubles and triples.
The 2017 Big South Championship stuck an exclamation point on a drastic late-season turnaround for the Lancers, who have won 13 of their past 15 games. Longwood, under the direction of 20th-year head coach
Kathy Riley, won eight of its final nine games to secure the No. 3 seed in the Big South Championship and parlayed that spot into a 4-1 tournament resume that featured two wins over No. 1 seed Liberty and victories over No. 2 seed Campbell and No. 5 seed Winthrop.
2017 Big South All-Tournament Team
Elizabeth McCarthy, Longwood (MVP)
Justina Augustine, Longwood
Kaylynn Batten, Longwood
Karleigh Donovan, Longwood
Amber Bishop, Liberty
Alexia Taylor, Liberty
Kaitlin McFarland, Liberty
Kiley Majette, Winthrop
Paige Haley, Winthrop
Amber Schisler, Campbell
Melissa Tullar, Campbell