by Jesica Parsley | May 18, 2014 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb softball team’s season ended Sunday after losing to the University of Tennessee 2-0 in the Knoxville regional championship game. The game was a pitchers duel until the sixth inning. Lady Vol sophomore outfielder Haley Tobler led off the inning with a single. Sophomore catcher/infielder Lexi Overstreet hit a two-run home run to plate the only runs of the game for either team. Lipscomb junior infielder Paige Neely led the Lady Bisons with two hits. Senior infielder Kristen Sturdivant earned one hit. Senior pitcher Ashley Anderson went the distance for the Lady Bisons. She gave up five hits and struck out nine. Her final record this season fell to 20-8. Seven Lady Bisons finished their careers at Lipscomb including: Anderson, infielder Bridgette Begle, catcher Rena’ Cothron, catcher/infielder Haley Elliott, infielder Kelsey Cartwright, pitcher/infielder Heather Parker, and Sturdivant. Lipscomb became the first softball team from the Atlantic Sun Conference to play in a regional championship game. The Lady Bisons finished the season with an overall record of...
by Jesica Parsley | May 18, 2014 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb softball team won two games on Saturday to advance to the final day of the NCAA Knoxville Regional on the University of Tennessee’s campus. The Lady Bisons will have to beat the Tennessee Lady Vols twice on Sunday to advance to a super regional. Lipscomb eliminated Charleston Southern in the first game on Saturday. Freshman infielder Mimi Cartwright doubled to score sophomore infielder Brittany Elmore to give the Lady Bisons a 1-0 lead after the first inning. Elmore scored on junior infielder Paige Neely’s single up the middle. Lady Bisons had a 2-0 lead in the sixth. Charleston Southern tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom on the sixth. Lipscomb would strike again in the seventh off a solo homerun from senior infielder Kristen Sturdivant. Pinch runner Jordan Abell scored on freshman outfielder Dee Baddley’s single to give the Lady Bisons the 4-2 lead. Charleston Southern failed to score in the bottom of the seventh. Senior pitcher Ashley Anderson picked up her 20th win giving up six hits while striking out four. Lipscomb had a rematch against Virginia Tech in game two on Saturday. The Lady Bisons bats did not disappoint. Lipscomb recorded 12 hits and scored 12 runs. Senior infielder Haley Elliot hit two homeruns and had six RBIs. Junior outfielder Brianne Welch had a triple and an RBI. Senior infielder Bridgette Begle recorded a three hit game with an RBI. Elmore and Neely both had two hits. Elmore earned two RBIs. Virginia Tech scored three runs. Lipscomb sophomore pitcher Tanner Sanders went the distance for Lipscomb giving up seven hits with one strikeout. The...
by Jesica Parsley | May 17, 2014 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb softball team lost 4-3 to Virginia Tech in their first game of the NCAA Knoxville Regional Friday afternoon in at Lee Stadium on the University of Tennessee’s campus in Knoxville. The Lady Bisons scored first. Sophomore infielder/outfielder Brittany Elmore led off with an infield single then would reach second on a passed ball. Freshman infielder Mimi Cartwright reached on an error. Elmore would score to give Lipscomb the 1-0 lead after one inning. Tech junior infielder Lauren Gaskill and junior infielder Kylie McGoldrick got back-to-back hits in the third. A pitch to load the bases hit redshirt sophomore catcher Katey Smith. Senior outfielder Amanda Ake hit a triple to clear the bases and give Tech a 3-1 lead. In the sixth, senior infielder Kristen Sturdivant hit a single to left center. Junior infielder Jordan Abell came in to pinch run for Sturdivant. Senior infielder Haley Elliot was walked, and freshman Becca Dean pinch ran for Elliot. Junior outfielder Brianne Welch scored on a fielder’s choice to load the bases. Senior infielder Bridgette Begle hit a single to score Abell and Dean. Begle’s RBIs tied the game up 3-3 after six innings. Gaskill singled in the top of the seventh. Tech’s freshman outfielder Vanessa Gonzalez’s hit a ball in the gap between shortstop and third that tipped off Begle’s glove at shortstop. The ball ended up on the top step of the Lipscomb dugout, which was ruled a dead ball. Gaskill scored on the play to give Virginia Tech the 4-3 lead. The Lady Bisons did not go down without a fight. In the bottom of the seventh, senior...
by Logan Butts | May 4, 2014 | News Slider
Due to a record number of graduates, Lipscomb University held two commencement ceremonies for the spring 2014 graduates Saturday afternoon in Allen Arena. Over 800 students received their undergrad, graduate or doctorate degrees in the ceremonies, including those who received Lipscomb’s first ever doctorate of ministry degrees. During the undergraduate ceremony, Director of the Beaman Library and 30-year faculty member Carolyn Wilson offered words of wisdom for the graduating students. “My father told me when I began my first career, which was teaching, that I should not determine success in terms of just monetary rewards,” Wilson said. Lipscomb president Randy Lowry also spoke during the ceremony, commenting on the bittersweet feelings of graduation day. “You’re on a path right now, and I know it’s hard to look back and look forward at the same time, but I want you to take a moment to think about that,” Lowry said. “Every path connects you not only to where you are going, but also to where you’ve been. “I hope you spend time celebrating. The past is a wonderful thing for us to recognize. But then there’s the future. The future is in some ways very uncertain and in other ways not so much.” During the undergraduate ceremony, David Sampson, President and CEO of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, was awarded with the prestigious Alumnus of the Year award. Sampson has also worked in the government as the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce and assistant secretary of commerce for economic development in the George W. Bush administration. In a change from the usual solo performance, Lipscomb’s Alma Mater...
by Erika Thornsberry | Apr 28, 2014 | News Slider, Sports
Senior night is always a special time for a team, but for Lipscomb’s softball team it was that much sweeter. Having a senior-led team, the women celebrated seven of their 20 players. Pitchers Ashley Anderson and Heather Parker, catcher Rena’ Cothron, shortstop Bridgette Begle, first basemen Kristen Sturdivant, right fielder Kelsey Cartwright and designated hitter Haley Elliot make up the senior class. “The standards are high, and the bar was raised for this team this year,” head coach Kristin Ryman said. “We have played so well this year.” The Lady Bisons took the sweep against Northern Kentucky this past weekend. They won the first game in a run-rule fashion 10-0, the second game 6-0 and on senior night won 6-3. This series may have been the seniors’ last, but it had a lot of firsts for them. Anderson was the winning pitcher in game one pitching her first no- hitter in her college career. “I wasn’t even paying attention; I didn’t even know until after the game because I was just thinking about how well we were hitting,” Anderson said. Begle hit her first grand-slam in her career with two outs in the fourth inning. Also in game one Heather Parker got her first hit of the season. “The seniors are a really special group. There’s not too many classes that are that big that you can say every single one of them are a key contributor to the team,” Ryman said. “They are a very unique group, five of them have been together for the long haul, and then we added Kelsey Cartwright and Heather Parker who transferred...
