Box Score Junior first-team all-conference catcher Hadley May ignited the offense in the sixth inning with a two-run homer - her 12th bomb of the season - then plated the game-winning runs on a single up the middle in the bottom of the seventh to give the fourth-seeded Fighting Squirrels a 6-5 victory over fifth-seeded Southern Virginia in the opening round of the 2024 USA South Conference championship tournament Thursday.

The win sends MBU (18-16) into the winner's bracket of the playoffs Friday at noon against top-seeded Pfeiffer (39-2), which defeated eighth-seeded William Peace in Friday's first game by a 9-1 margin.  

The Fighting Squirrels are guaranteed to play two games Friday - the second game depends on the result of the noon game against Pfeiffer.  If MBU wins, the next game is Friday at 5 p.m.  If MBU loses, their second game of the day will be at 2:30 p.m.  It was announced Thursday night that no team will be required to play three games on Friday, so the tournament schedule will be flexible based on Friday's results.

Southern Virginia opened the scoring in the top of the fourth with a three-run homer.  MBU was held to four hits over the first five innings, then exploded for four runs on five hits in the bottom of the sixth.  In addition to May's two-run roundtripper, a run scored from first on a Trinity Thomas single up the middle, which hopped all the way to the fence to tied the game.  Thomas then scored to take the lead on a hit by Olivia Gagne.

The Knights, down to their last at-bat, evened the score at 4-4 on an infield error on a sacrifice bunt attempt, then scored the lead run on a base hit.  That set up May's game-winning heroics, which was ruled a two-run double, allowing baserunners to score from second and first.  May finished 3-for-3 with a walk, run scored and four RBI.  Frazier finished with two hits while Alison Crum scored twice after reaching safely on a hit and an error.

Junior Reagan Frazier picked up the win in relief, improving to 7-4 for the season, allowing two unearned runs on one hit in 3.2 innings.