CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Powered by the long ball and a stout defense, the Blue Raider softball team shutdown (RV) Campbellsville (Ky.) 7-2 to eliminate the Tigers and advance in the Mid-South Conference tournament.
Lindsey Wilson's offense erupted for four home runs, the most in a single game since March 28, 2023. Meanwhile, sophomore
Kayden Murray rolled to her eighth complete-game victory of the season by holding the designated home team to one earned run on five hits and striking out four.
Natalie Wandrie led a quartet of Blue Raiders who recorded multiple hits on the day with three.
Sam Hartman,
Brylee Pickerell, and
Olivia Franceschi combined for six hits behind a pair, apiece, and drove in six of Lindsey Wilson's seven runs.
The action picked up without hesitation in the first inning as Epley posted a lead-off single up the middle then moved up to second base off a sacrifice bunt. Next was Hartman, and on a 1-2 pitch the junior crushed her seventh home run of the season over the center field fence to give Lindsey Wilson a 2-0 lead. Four pitches later, Pickerell lined up an answer and delivered her third bomb of the year to left field.
Wandrie nearly blew the roof off the Blue Raider dugout the next at-bat but still landed a double off the center field wall. Then, after a wild pitch advanced Wandrie to third base,
Kaiden Rodgers flied out to deep right field to plate Wandrie as the fourth run of the inning.
Campbellsville snatched its first run in the bottom of the first frame but was limited to just three base runners over the next five innings.
In the second,
Brooklynn Becker laid down an infield single to the Tigers' second baseman to open things up. Following consecutive putouts by Campbellsville, Hartman returned to the plate and outlasted a longer at-bat before sending a no-doubter to left field to extend the lead to 6-1.
Franceschi eventually joined the onslaught in the third inning when she demolished a two-out, solo home run, just her second of the season and second of her career in the postseason.
From there, Murray and the defense locked up the Tigers' explosive bats and shaved off elimination.
The Blue Raiders continue their run in the consolation bracket at 3:30 p.m. CST on Saturday, May 3 in a rematch with Cumberland (Tenn.).
