In a battle of last year’s top two teams in the SAC, the Lenoir-Rhyne Softball team came away with a sweep at No. 24 Anderson. In game one, Lauren Jackson and Lauren Rakes hit back-to-back home runs and Lora Beth Wood had the game-winning two-run single in the 7th inning as the Bears overcame a three run deficit to win 5-3. In the night cap, Morgan Beeler dominated in the circle as Beeler threw a two-hit complete game shutout to complete the sweep in a 6-0 victory. Beeler moves to 10-2 with a 1.74 ERA after spinning the gem on Saturday.

In game one, last year’s SAC player of the year, Kayson Boatner got the Trojans on the board with a two-run homer in the first inning. The game remained 2-0 until the 6th when Jackson and Rakes hit back to back bombs to give the Bears the 3-2 lead.

After Anderson tied it in the bottom half, Wood delivered the game-winning two-run single. Wood finished with her third 3-hit game of the season. Wood had three of the Bears seven hits on the day as Wood was the only LR player with multiple hits in the game.

Rakes (8-1) got the win in the circle pitching six innings while Beeler pitched a scoreless seventh to pick up her conference-leading fourth save of the season

After stealing all the momentum late in game one, the Bears continued it early in the second game, scoring three runs in the first inning with a RBI single by Talon LaClair and two more RBIs from Jackson. Rackard then joined LaClair and Rakes with at least five home runs this season as the sophomore hit a two-run bomb in the second inning. The long ball gave the Bears a 5-0 lead. Rackard and Kaylan had two hits in the contest.

Beeler was very efficient, only allowing two hits and one walk while striking six (all swinging). It was Beeler’s first shutout of the year and sixth of the career.

The Bears snapped the Trojans four-game winning streak against LR. and now, the Bears have four straight games against ranked opponents. This is the first games against a ranked team this year after going 2-4 against top 25 teams last year.

Rackard now has a 14-game hitting streak, which is eight off the program record. Wood has reached base in 16 straight games.
Beeler is third in program history with six saves, two behind Rakes for second. She also has at least one shutout in each of her four seasons and currently currently leads the SAC in saves, tied with Rakes for first in strikeouts with 93, tied for second in wins with 10 and third in ERA with 1.74 .

Lenoir-Rhyne improves to 21-3 overall, 4-2 in the South Atlantic Conference. No. 19 Wingate comes to Hickory on Tuesday for key SAC doubleheader. First-pitch is scheduled for 2:00 pm from Bears Field.