ROCK HILL, S.C. – No. 5 Birmingham-Southern plated one run in the fourth and one run in the fifth to take the 2-1 win over No. 4 Liberty Thursday morning in game one of the 2008 Big South Softball Championship.

With the win, Birmingham-Southern improves to 32-26, while the Lady Flames fall to 17-39-1.

Liberty opened the scoring in the bottom half of the first as they moved one runner across to take the 1-0 lead.  J’nae Jefferson led the inning off with a double off the wall in left center and moved to third on a bunt single by Keely McMillion.  Two batters later, Shannon McKain scored Jefferson on a fielder’s choice as Jefferson was able to slide under the tag in the play at the plate.

Birmingham-Southern tied the score at 1-1 as it plated one runner in the top half of the fourth.  Melissa Muehlenfeld led off the inning with a single up the middle.  Lindsay Creighton drew a walk to move Muehlenfeld to second.  Two batters later, a single up the middle by Grace Stokes loaded the bases.  Anne Lawrence scored Muehlenfeld as she reached on an error. 

Birmingham-Southern took its first lead of the game at 2-1 in the top of fifth as it moved one runner over.  With two outs, Muehlenfeld singled to the shortstop and stole second.  DiAmond Jordan brought home Muehlenfeld with a single through the left side.

With the win the Panthers will now play No. 1 seed Winthrop in game three at 3:00pm.  Liberty will play the loser of game two at 10:00am on Friday, May 9 in the first round of the consolation bracket.

Quotes
Birmingham-Southern Head Coach Craig Hyde
“I am proud of the way the team fought back today against some adversity. We were able to stay focused and keep our composure under pressure and it was a good win for us.”

Liberty Head Coach Paul Wetmore
“We got up early and then we let down.  We’ve been on our team all year that you have to play a full seven innings, but we let up during the middle of the game.  I just told our team that someone is going to come out of the loser’s bracket and now we know what we need to do.”