Going into the final softball double header of the regular season, the Panthers traveled to Shenandoah.
With the team already clinching their spot in the playoffs, the only playoff implications were for seeding.
The Panthers sat in the seven seed prior to the weekend, but a split would bring them to the six, and a sweep of the Hornets would put them as the fifth seed.
“We definitely talked about playing free and competing, that today was icing on the cake for the work we put in all year,” Head Coach Joshua Freeman said.
Against the Hornets in game one, the Panthers took an early 1-0 lead in the first when senior Autumn McMillen singled to center, scoring first-year Sophia Peters.
After Shenandoah responded with one in the bottom half, sophomore Kaylee Hughes drove in first-year Mirenda Shields to take the lead 2-1.
Between the third and fifth inning, Shenandoah scored six runs, highlighted by a four spot in the fourth.
The Hornets would shut out the Panther offense after allowing two in the first two innings to beat Ferrum 7-2.
“We talked about getting out of innings and not giving extra outs,” Freeman said.
In game two, the team jumped out to an early lead, scoring three in the first, with sophomore Georgia Carter doubling to center, scoring two, and Shields adding another run after her RBI single to right center.
Shenandoah scored one in the bottom half, but the Panther offense was quick to strike, plating two more in the top of the second.
First-year Nicole Emerson’s sac fly made it 4-1, and a wild pitch, scoring Hughes, made it 5-1.
“Getting out to an early lead definitely gives your team some confidence to close it out,” Freeman said. “We are a strike-throwing team, so when we do take the lead, it goes right into our pitching strategy.”
Shenandoah closed the gap to 5-4 after three innings, but the Panthers kept swinging, and Carter tallied her third RBI of the game on a single to the pitcher.
Ferrum would add one in the fifth on an RBI single from Hughes and another in the sixth off an error from the Hornets center fielder.
Ferrum would close the regular-season throwing four shutout innings in the circle to win 8-4.
After the win, Freeman said they didn’t talk about the shift to the postseason much.
“We wanted to enjoy the very productive season,” he said. “We had a small talk on the reflection on the day and the season. We will start talking about the postseason this week in practice.”
A split put the team into the sixth seed heading into the conference tournament.
The team finished the regular season with an overall record of 14-22 and 10-12 in the ODAC.
Ferrum will be on Pod 2 for Pod Play.
In the team’s Pod is two-seed Bridgewater, three-seed Randolph-Macon, six-seed Ferrum, and seven-seed Roanoke.
“We split with Bridgewater and Roanoke, so the team knows we can compete with both of those teams,” Freeman said. “Randolph-Macon–we laid two eggs when they came here and didn’t play all that well. But the team knows if we can play a sound softball game, we can play with anybody in the conference just as we did in the regular season.”
The Panthers will battle against Randolph-Macon in the first round of the tournament under the lights, Sat., May 3 at 7:30 p.m. at Moyer Complex in Salem, VA.
“This team has brought the energy for every game this season,” Freeman said. “I hope we don’t change that for the postseason. The whole team–coaches included–are all super excited for this opportunity.”
