Salem, Va. -- The 24th-ranked University of Lynchburg softball team posted a 1-1 record against a pair of nationally ranked clubs on its way to a third-place finish at the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament Sunday, besting No. 13 Randolph-Macon by a 5-4 score in 9 innings before falling to No. 17-ranked Roanoke, 8-0, in loser-out action.

Lynchburg started the early morning off hot, scoring a first-inning run thank to a Karle Cundiff RBI single and added two more in the second on a Carly Hudnall RBI knock and a Yellow Jackets error.

Randolph-Macon quickly tied the game in the third, taking advantage of a Hornets error for three runs in the inning. The Yellow Jackets made it a 4-3 lead in the sixth on Sierra Livingston's pinch-hit RBI single and carried that lead into the seventh.

With their season on the line, Sophie Tully crushed a one-out home run to left-center to tie the game and forced extra innings. Both teams posted shutout eighth innings, and Kailey Dorcsis stranded the R-MC go-ahead run at third again in the ninth with a pair of popouts to set the Hornets up for victory. Lexi Powell bunted tiebreak runner Leah Caldwell to third in the bottom half, setting up Hudnall with a runner on third and just one out. Hudnall ripped a single to left field, scoring Caldwell for the walk-off Hornets win.

Hudnall had two hits and two RBI in the opener for Lynchburg, and Powell was 2-for-2 with a run scored and two stolen bases. Dorcsis earned the win in relief, allowing just one run and two hits over 5 sparkling innings.

The Hornets bats fell silent against Roanoke, however, and the Maroons lineup came out swinging with four runs in the top of the first. Right-hander Shanan Hester toed the rubber with a lead and never looked back, tossing a five-inning no-hitter. The Hornets' lone threat came in the second when they loaded the bases on two walks and a hit-by-pitch with two out, but Hester pitched out of the jam. She set down the Hornets in order in two of the following innings, and Roanoke added runs in the second and fifth innings to advance to the championship game.

Lynchburg (26-19) finished third in the tournament. The Hornets' 26 wins marked the ninth consecutive year – not counting the pandemic-shortened 2020 season – in which Lynchburg crossed the 25-win mark as a team.

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