Wellborn's Grand Slam Drops Highlanders in Game One at Big South Championships

Birmingham, Ala. --A grand slam by Jennifer Wellborn and Radford (31-31) squandering several scoring opportunities, keyed Birmingham-Southern to a 7-2 win over the Highlanders in game one at the 2004 Big South Championships presented by Aero’postale. RU will fall to the losers’ bracket and play at approximately 2 p.m. EST.

The Panthers struck for five runs, all with two outs, in the top of the second. The big blow was a grand slam by Jennifer Wellborn which followed an infield RBI single by Nova Gaines. Jennifer Bosley (Oakland, Md./Southern Garrett) cut the BSC lead to 5-2 with a two-run homer to left in the bottom half of the inning.

BSC added two runs in the top of the fourth courtesy of two Radford errors. With two outs and runners on second and third, Lindsay Woody (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) dropped a lazy line drive by Dawn Treadwell allowing Kerri Owens to score. Wellborn, who reached on Woody’s first error of the inning, scored when Treadwell was caught in a rundown between first and second.

The Highlanders had opportunities to score in the first, third, fifth and sixth innings, but were unable to produce the key hit. In the first, third and fifth, they stranded three runners, two at third, in scoring position with less than two outs. In the sixth after a one-out triple by Danielle Tompkins (Equality, Ill./Woodside (Va.)), the Highs failed on a suicide squeeze. They left a total of six runners on base for the game.

Kristina Villavicencio picked up the win in the circle for BSC. She allowed two runs on seven hits, striking out three and walking one. Breanna Felix (Spring Valley, Calif./Mount Miguel) suffered the loss allowing five runs on six hits and walking one in 1.2 innings of work. Bosley gave a pair of unearned runs on two hits. She struck out three and walked six in 5.1 innings of relief.

Tompkins finished the game 3-for-3, a home run shy of the cycle. Her triple in the sixth was the 18th on the season for the Highlanders, a new school record. Wohlgemuth went 2-for-4 with a double, extending her on base streak to 12 games.

Nova Gaines and Alaina Shelton were perfect at the plate for the Panthers, going 3-for-3 and 2-for-2 respectively.

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