Box Score
Decatur, AL-The Belhaven softball team, ranked 6th in the latest NAIA Top 25 Poll, scored a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat Columbia College (MO) 2-1 in a Pool F contest at the 30th Annual NAIA National Softball Championship at Wilson Morgan Park on Saturday afternoon. Heather Pace came up with a clutch one out run scoring single in the bottom of the seventh inning driving home Jessica Eggold from third for the game winning run.

Columbia (37-18) put their only run of the game on the board in the top of the first inning on a couple of base hits against Blazer starting pitcher Sarah Burns. Torri Long singled to open the contest and Valerie Teter also collected a hit in the inning to get the Cougar offense going. With two outs and runners on first and third, Burns uncorked a wild pitch that brought in Samantha Stringer who had reached on a fielder's choice to make it 1-0 Columbia.

Belhaven (52-8) answered quickly with a run of their own in the bottom of the first inning and did it without the aid of a hit. Britney Webb walked to open the frame and a wild pitch by Teter allowed Webb to advance to third. Webb then proceeded to steal third base and with two outs scored on Teter's second wild pitch of the inning to knot the score at 1-1.

Columbia threatened to retake the lead in the top of the fourth, but Burns was able to work out of the jam. Teter singled to open the inning, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Rachel Coleman, and then moved to third base on a double to left center off the bat of Tori Gehlert. With one out and runners on second and third, Burns induced a pop out to second by Kacey Rehagen followed by a foul out off the bat of Krista Vlasak to get the Blazers out of the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh the Blazers were finally about to put something together at the plate. Belhaven had been held to just one hit prior to the seventh inning. Eggold led off the inning by being hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a stolen base. With one out, Tiffany Ansley singled down the right field moving Eggold to third base where she scored on Pace's single giving Belhaven the 2-1 win.

Sarah Burns pitched a complete game for the Blazers allowing just one run on five hits with seven strikeouts improving her record to 28-4 on the season. Katie Sanders, Ansley, and H. Pace had the only hits for Belhaven, but the Blazers had a stolen base each from Webb and Eggold which helped lead to both runs. As a team, Belhaven has 222 stolen bases this season.

Valerie Teter took the loss for Columbia allowing two runs on three hits in 6.1 innings as she falls to 30-7 on the season. Teter struck out seven, walked one, and had a pair of costly wild pitches. Gehlert and Teter both had two hits to pace the Cougars at the plate.

With the win, Belhaven improves to 2-0 in pool play and will face Dickinson State University (SD) on Monday at 2:00 PM in their final pool play game. A win would assure Belhaven a spot in the eight team double elimination bracket tournament which is scheduled to begin Monday night at 9:00 PM.