Greensboro, N.C. -- For the first time since 2009, University of Lynchburg's softball team will be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament.

The Hornets cinched the top nod with a doubleheader sweep of Guilford Saturday afternoon, topping the Quakers by 11-2 and 11-3 scores on the road.

Six Lynchburg players recorded four or more hits on the day, highlighted by Sophie Tully's 4-for-8 performance with a home run and four RBI. Gracie Dooley also hit safely four times and homered, and Addison Walter hit a longball of her own and drove in three Hornet runs. Lynchburg hit .467 as a team (35-for-75) over the two ballgames.

Lynchburg wasted no time getting the bats started. Carly Hudnall led off Game 1 with a single and later scored on a wild pitch. Tully followed with an RBI single before the Quakers recorded an out in the game, and Dooley hit a two-run home run for a comfortable 4-0 lead before Guilford even picked up the bats.

The Quakers rallied for single runs in both the first and second innings before Lynchburg tacked on another in the third on Bri Hodges' RBI single. Ashley Hailey made it a 6-2 Hornet lead in the sixth with an RBI single – one of her team-best five hits on the afternoon – and Lynchburg broke the game open with five more in the seventh. Walter kicked off that rally with a leadoff home run, which Kaleigh Hackett followed with a double. Hailey drove in Lynchburg's second run with an infield single before Tully blew the game wide open with a three-run shot to left-center field.

Emily Charlton earned the win for the Hornets in the first ballgame, tossing six innings of five-hit ball with two runs allowed.

Game 2 started with a Quaker rally, a two-run first-inning home run, and GC pitcher Alexis Lester held the Hornets off the board until the fourth. Hailey delivered again to break up the shutout, a two-out RBI single, but GC stretched the lead to 3-1 with another run in the bottom half.

Lynchburg pulled the score even in the fifth, a rally sparked by Karle Cundiff's leadoff triple. Dooley drove her in with a one-out triple of her own and scored on Walter's sacrifice fly.

The dam burst in the sixth as the Hornets broke out for eight runs. Hudnall, the leadoff hitter, again reached on a bunt single to start the inning, and Cundiff brought home the first run with an RBI single. Lynchburg ripped eight hits in the inning, the final an RBI single by Cassie Powell that made it an 11-3 game.

Logan Curtis pitched around two errors in the bottom of the sixth to end the game early with a scoreless frame, her second of the day. Kailey Dorcsis earned the win in relief for Lynchburg, allowing just one baserunner in 1 ⅔ innings.

Lynchburg (23-17, 13-5 ODAC) finished the regular season tied with No. 10-ranked Randolph-Macon atop the conference standings, but the Hornets captured the No. 1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament due to ODAC tiebreakers. It marks the first time Lynchburg enters postseason play as the league favorite since 2009 – also Lynchburg's last ODAC softball championship – and the ninth time overall; four of Lynchburg's six conference titles have come as the No. 1 seed.

Play in the conference tournament will begin at noon Friday, April 29 against eighth-seeded Eastern Mennonite on Field 1 of the James I. Moyer Sports Complex in Salem.

Visit Lynchburg athletics' home online, LynchburgSports.com, anytime for up-to-the-minute news on all Hornets sports and coverage from the Lynchburg Hornets Sports Network. Click here to sign up for email and text alerts from Lynchburg athletics.

Give Lynchburg Sports a like on Facebook, and follow Lynchburg athletics on Instagram and Twitter.

--LYN--