Thursday, April 13th, 2006

Softball Team Earns NCCAA National Championship Berth

By going through the National Christian College Athletic Association South Regional flawlessly, the Piedmont College softball team earned a trip to the NCCAA National Championship by defeating Emmanuel College in the championship game 2-1 at PC's Walker Field. The Lady Lions defeated second-seeded Emmanuel for the second consecutive time to win the regional.

The 2006 NCCAA National Championship will be held April 27-29 at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, IN. The NCCAA National Championship appearance will be the third consecutive for the PC softball program.

Meredith Ray threw her second complete game of the tournament allowing zero earned runs and striking out six. For the regional she threw 14 innings and allowed one run, zero earned to the lead PC to the championship.

In the first inning, leadoff hitter Leah Della Torre was walked, advanced to second on a sacrifice and scored on a pair of passed balls for the Lady Lions' first run. Della Torre scored the eventual game-winner after she singled and was moved to third on a Marissa Harding sacrifice fly to leftfield.

These two teams played a second game for regular-season action after the championship game and the Lady Lions won 9-0 as Lindsay Drevlow fired a two-hit shutout.

The wins move Piedmont to 23-4 overall. The Lady Lions will complete their regular season GSAC schedule as they travel to Nashville, TN to take on Fisk University on Saturday, April 15th with game-time set for 2:00 CST.