PEMBROKE, NC - Sophomore left-hander Michaela Wolf tossed a six-hit shutout and pushed home the game’s only two runs with a fifth-inning double as Francis Marion University blanked 25th-ranked Georgia College & State University 2-0 in the opening game of the NCAA Division II Women’s Softball South Atlantic Regional on Wednesday morning (May 7).

The eight-team, double-elimination tournament is being played at LRA Field on the campus of UNC Pembroke.

The Patriots (34-13), seeded fifth in the regional, advance to face top-seeded Carson-Newman College (an 8-0 winner over Pfeiffer University) on Thursday at 4 p.m. Fourth-seeded GCSU (39-13), coached by former Patriot outfielder and FMU graduate Ginger Chaffinch, drops into the losers’ bracket.

This was Francis Marion’s first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and the program’s first post-season national tournament victory since the 1988 NAIA Tournament in Oklahoma City.

Wolf (24-10) fanned four and walked three, while going 3-for-4 at the plate. 

After stranding two runners on base in the first, third, and fourth innings, the Patriots finally dented the scoreboard in the fifth frame. Shannan Tyson led off the inning with a single through the left side and was sacrificed to second. Monica Wofford then walked on a full-court illegal pitch called on GCSU right Mandy Chandler (24-8). That call also moved Tyson to third. On the first pitch to pinch hitter Laura Hauff, Wofford stole second base. Hauff struck out bringing Wolf to the plate with two outs.

With a full count, Wolf drilled a liner to left center field that got over the outstretched glove of the Bobcat outfielder scoring both Tyson and Wofford.

However in the bottom of the inning Wolf would make things interesting from the mound. After retiring the first two batters, she allowed a single and then walked two batters to load the bases. Wolf then induced Shelbie Lindsey to ground out to second base to end the inning.

Wolf then retired the Bobcats in order in each of the last two innings. She helped her own cause with a snow-cone catch of the liner back to the mound in the sixth. Third baseman Kat Beauvais made a lunging stop of a screamer by Bobcats speedster Sherquita Bostick to open the seventh.

Tyson went 2-for-4 for the Patriots. Both teams left nine runners on base.

Francis Marion head coach Stacey Vallee said, “One of our goals this season was to produce high hit totals, and with nine hits today I thought we would eventually push across some runs. Michaela (Wolf) stepped up for us at the plate with the two-run double, and she did her job on the mound. This included escaping a couple of tight situations with Georgia College runners on base.”

“Kat (Beauvais) also made several good defensive plays at third base, including the play on Bostick’s ball in the seventh inning. It feels great to win in our first NCAA appearance.”

Wofford also upped her Division II career record for being hit-by-pitches to 54 with a first-inning painful at bat,