DECATUR, Ala. - Bats came alive Friday as Stillman College swept three elimination games in the Southern States Athletic Conference Softball Championships to advance to Championship Saturday at Wilson Morgan Park for the second-consecutive season.

Katelyn Lankford, Madison Bubel and Carolyn Carter each had seven hits through three games and at least one home run to pace the Tigers to 41 total hits on the day. There were six home runs in the first two games, including two by Lankford, who has three home runs and seven RBI in the tournament.

Stillman (35-12) started the day with a 9-1 run rule victory over Point University, and then eliminated Faulkner University, 14-5, and Blue Mountain Christian University, 9-3, in a night cap that concluded 11 hours after the Tigers first game of the day began. 

The Tigers would need to win three games again on Saturday to claim their first softball conference title in the program history. Second-seed Middle Georgia State University is next on the schedule in the final loser's bracket game Saturday morning at 11 a.m. The winner will play regular season champion William Carey University in a double-elimination championship game at 1 p.m., and also receive an automatic bid to the NAIA Opening Round. 

STILLMAN 9, POINT 1 (5 INN.)

Before the second delay, Lauren Haskins and Katelynn Lankford continued the home run parade in the second game of the day. Haskins homered to left in the leadoff at bat of the game, followed by a two-run shot by Lankford in the second inning. The Tigers took a 4-0 lead in the third inning, scoring on a wild pitch.
 

Karli Davidson was at the plate with a 3-0 count and two outs when the game was halted at 3:28 p.m. It resumed at 6:30 p.m., and Davidson delivered a double to left center. She later scored on an error, sparking five more unearned runs in the third inning for Stillman to lead 9-0. Taylor Roland doubled in one run in the third and Anniston Jones collected an RBI with a bases-loaded walk. 

Lankford hit her second home run of the game and third of the tournament with a three-run shot to left in the fourth inning to make it a 12-0 lead. 

Faulkner answered with an Ivey Hill two-run home run in the fourth and a two-run double by Anna Purvis to reduce Stillman's lead to eight runs in the fifth, 12-4. Purvis later scored on an error to keep the game from using the mercy rule. In the seventh inning, Carolyn Carter added a solo home run and Lankford picked up an RBI double to cap the game.

Jasmine Wade (8-3) recorded the win in the circle, pitching six innings with four earned runs out of five total runs. Lexi McCray closed the seventh inning, allowing one hit and no runs.


STILLMAN 9, BLUE MOUNTAIN 3

Madison Bubel, Carolyn Carter and Katelyn Lankford each hit 3-for-4 in the night cap as Stillman pulled away from Blue Mountain Christian University, 9-3. Lexi McCray (15-4) recorded another complete game for her 15th win of the season. She allowed three earned runs and gave up nine hits. She struck out three. 

The Toppers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second on a sac fly, but Stillman produced a six-run bottom of the second with RBI from Ivey Moreland and Taylor Roland to take a 2-1 lead before Lauren Haskins doubled to left to score two more. An Anniston Jones ground out RBI and Bailie Seales sac fly capped the inning. 

Blue Mountain added a run in each the third and sixth innings to make it a three-run game, 6-3, but Stillman answered in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run double by Bubel, who later scored on an error in left field on a Carter single.