From Emory University Athletics
On a day where school season records and individual game highs were established, the Emory softball squad registered wins over Southwestern University and Rhodes College. The No. 10-ranked Eagles opened Sunday's action with an 8-3 decision over the Pirates of Southwestern before closing out a 4-0 weekend with an 8-1 verdict over Rhodes. Both games were played on the campus of Rhodes College. The Eagles are now 36-4 on the year.
Junior pitcher Brittany File established program season records in both wins and strikeouts over the course of the two contests. File, who entered the day with 26 wins, earned both decisions, which ran her season ledger to 28-2, bettering the previous mark of 27 victories set by Amanda Kardys in 2014. File also moved into the No. 1 spot on the Eagles' seasonal ladder with 251 strikeouts. On Saturday, she had moved into a first-place tie with Shanon Andersen in that category. File went the first 5 2/3 innings, allowing just three hits and fanning 11 in the Southwestern game, before tossing six frames and whiffing 10 Lynx in the nightcap. File has struck out 10 or more batters in her last four appearances.
Senior Melody Carter came through with a monster offensive performance, collecting six hits in seven trips to the plate and totaling eight RBIs in the two encounters. Carter went 2-for-3 against Southwestern and socked a two-run homer in the top of the fifth that gave Emory a 6-3 lead. Against Rhodes, Carter hit safely in all four plate appearances and knocked in a career-high six RBIs, tying the eighth-highest individual game total in program annals, which featured a grand slam in the top of the seventh that keyed a five-run uprising and boosted Emory to an 8-0 lead. It was Carter's sixth round tripper of the season. Earlier, Carter produced the first two runs of the game, with a two-run double scoring Taylor Forte and Alyssa Pollard.
Pollard delivered a 2-for-4 hitting effort against Southwestern and drove in four runs, including a three-run homer in the second inning, her second of the year, that pushed Emory to a 4-0 advantage.