Saturday in the Gulf South Conference Opening Festival in Montgomery, Ala., the Lee University softball team began league play with a 5-3 win over Alabama-Huntsville and a 6-4 defeat of Christian Brothers.
Lee (7-4) scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to go ahead of UAH, as Abby McKinney led off with a single and Zoe Miller, Bailey Church, Kayla Gooch and Sam Hill came through with two-out singles. Stevie Baird then was hit by a pitch, bringing in the final run.
Miller was 2-for-2 with two walks and three runs scored in the game, and Church was 2-for-2 with Gooch 2-for-4. Pitchers Shonna Penney and Leigh Beatenbough allowed a total of six hits.
Beatenbough gave up just one hit in 3 2/3 innings in her second relief win of the day, and Taylor Moran was 3-for-4 with three RBIs against CBU. Maddie Davenport and Baird each an RBI with two hits, Louie was 2-for-4 and scored twice and Lily Hatcher was 2-for-3 and scored a run.
-At Frost Stadium, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga lost 7-2 to Western Kentucky in a Chattanooga Challenge game shortened by rain to six innings.
UTC (3-5) totaled only five hits but took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on J.J. Hamill's home run after Hayleigh Weissenbach's two-out single. WKU (7-3) scored three runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings against freshman pitcher Allison Swinford (1-1). Kendall Smith was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer and Paige Carter and Brittany Vaughn each was 3-for-4.
UTC is scheduled to play Tennessee State today at 1 p.m.