Augusta State jumped out to a 4-0 lead before eliminating Queens, 7-1 Saturday night in game five of the NCAA Southeast Dahlonega Regional.
The Lady Jaguars improve to 34-20 on the season and advance to the Regional Championship on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. against the top-ranked and #1 seed North Georgia. The Royals ended their season 27-26 on the year.
After two scoreless innings, Augusta State rallied in the third inning, using four hits to plate four runs for a 4-0 lead. Angii Verbeelen and Alysha Krier both singled up the middle to put two runners on base, Kacee Camp followed with a double to left center, scoring Verbeelen. Kristen Jones then came up and hit a three-run homer for a 4-0 advantage.
The Lady Jags added another run in the top of the fourth after Leann Barber knocked a homer off the leftfield foul pole for a 5-0 lead over the Royals.
ASU attacked again in the fifth inning, using one hit and taking advantage of a Royals error to plate two more runs for a 7-0 lead. Camp and Thornton both scored on the error.
Queens plated their only run of the game in the seventh inning, using a hit to score the run. Megan Campbell (Raleigh, N.C., Athens Drive ) notched a triple, and Alisha Waldrop (McDonough, GA , Luella ) delivered a clutch sac fly to bring Campbell home and cut the Augusta State lead to six at 7-1.
Waldrop went 1-for-2 for Queens with the Royal’s only RBI, while Campbell tallied a pair of hits in the losing effort.
For ASU, Kristen Jones went 2-for-3 on the night with three RBI, while Barber and Camp each had a hit and a run batted in.
Emily Corish (8-3) earned the win, allowing only three hits with a strikeout in 6.0 innings of work.
Brittany Stephens (10-8) was tagged with the loss and pitched 2.1 innings. Stephens gave up four runs on five hits and struck out one.