Sophomore Stevie Baird sent the Lee softball team on to the NCAA South Super Regional as she singled home Annabeth Pruett in the bottom of the tenth inning to defeat North Alabama, 3-2 in a thrilling end to the NCAA South Region 2 Tournament.
The Lady Flames are now one of the final 16 teams left in NCAA D2 as they head for Pensacola to meet the winner of the South Region 1 Bracket, West Florida next week.
Taylor Moran (14-5) continued her brilliance in the circle tossing all 10 innings allowing just two runs on seven hits.
The freshman also made her presence felt at the plate as she was 2 for 4 and belted a monster home run to center field in the sixth inning to put the Lady Flames up 2-1.
All totaled Moran was a perfect 3-0 and gave up just four runs in 22 innings for the Lady Flames.
The Lions refused to go quietly however as they would come back to tie the game on a sacrifice fly by Sabrina Gilliam in the top of the seventh to send the game into extra innings.
The two clubs put up zeroes over the next two frames before the Lady Flames finally broke through in the tenth for the historic victory.
Pruett played a key role in the lineup as she doubled and scored in the bottom of the second on a single by Kayla Louie and then ripped a double down the left field line to leadoff the tenth. Louie's sacrifice bunt in tenth helped set up the game-winning score.
"It's hard to put into words what I'm feeling. Our goal was to play well and we played so well this week," said a jubulient head coach Emily Russell. "AB (Annabeth Pruett) got us the big double and then Stevie came through with the winning hit and it was just such a surreal moment. Taylor was incredible again tonight for us and it was just a complete team effort."
The battle started at noon but featured a near seven hour rain and lightning delay causing the game to be halted in the top of the third inning until 8 p.m.
North Alabama's Hillary Carpenter (16-8) was the tough luck loser as she worked all 9.1 innings. She allowed eight hits and three runs while striking out three.
Lee improves to 36-18 on the year and were a perfect 5-0 against the defending national champion Lions (32-20) this season.
"I'm so proud of these girls. We want to build a program that wins and plays with class and all week long we received compliments about how these girls carried themselves," concluded Russell.