BATESVILLE, Arkansas - It was emotional day for the Lyon College Softball team who watched their five players say their good-byes on Senior Day at Howard and Mary House Field.
Mary (MK) Duffield,
Emily Martinez,
Georgia Holzer and
Sydney Lasher will graduate in May and
Olivia Orf will be leaving the team at the end of the semester, as well, to pursue her profession of choice.
Parents and family members gathered around the diamond to wish them a farewell in a day where the SLIAC's top ranked team, the Spalding Golden Eagles were in town to play the final doubleheader of the year against the Scots.
Lyon College lost both games 6-4 and 6-4 to Spalding.
In the first game,
Sophie Varela led off the bottom of the first inning with a walk. Then with two outs, Orf singled through the right side and
Skylar Foreman doubled to bring in Varela for a 1-0 lead. Orf also came in to score when
Brianna Morquecho singled for a 2-0 Scots' lead.
Spalding came back to score four times in the top of the second inning for a 4-2 lead.
Then Spalding scored two more runs in the top of the fourth to lead 6-2.
In the bottom of the fourth, though,
Rebecca Rodriguez singled down the right field line and with one out,
Ohnrie Bergman reached first on an error.
Gabby Thomas came in to run for Rodriguez at second base and that set up a triple to right field by Varela. The Scots trailed 6-4 and did not threaten again in the game.
Holzer pitched seven full innings for her final complete game as a Lyon Scot, allowed six runs, three of which were earned and 16 hits.
In game two, Duffield hit a solo homer over the right field wall in the bottom of the first inning to put Lyon up 1-0.
Spalding tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the second, but Foreman led off the bottom of the second for the Scots with a single through the left side. With one out, Rodriguez reached first on an error and with two outs, Martinez singled to left field to score Foreman and Rodriguez for a 3-1 Lyon College lead.
Spalding scored another run in the top of the fourth inning to close the game to 3-2, then took a 4-3 lead in the top of the fifth. Spalding added two more runs in the top of the seventh to lead 6-3.
In the bottom half of the seventh inning, Rodriguez led off with a walk and Thomas came in to run for her. Thomas stole second base and advanced to third on a Bergman ground out. Martinez singled to left center field to bring in Thomas and
Soni Beene came in to run for Martinez. Beene advanced to second on a wild pitch and Varela beat out an infield single.
Anna Voth put down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up, but a pop out to the short stop ended the game and the season for the Scots.
Lyon College finished the regular season 13-27 overall and 7-11 in the SLIAC.
