The Florida A&M Softball lived to fight another day as they defeated North Carolina A&T, 4-3 in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Softball Tournament elimination game, Thursday afternoon at the Ormond Beach Softball Complex.

FAMU (16-39) finished with a game high nine hits as Melissa Oliphant led the way with three hits, followed by Rhianna Green, and Alacia Strafford with two hits each.

North Carolina A&T (31-17-1) finished with just four hits off Oliphant (7-10), with Yahamma White finishing with a team high two hits.

Oliphant got the win for the Lady Rattlers, allowing four hits, three runs and striking out two in seven complete innings of work, while Sasha Philpot (10-10) took the loss for the Lady Aggies, allowing eight hits, three earned runs in four and one-third innings of work.

North Carolina A&T scored all of their runs in the top of the first inning as White scored on a wild pitch, followed by Tangala Conover’s steal of home. A Ryanne Hill single would later score Lillian Bullock from second, making the score 3-0 in favor of the Lady Aggies.

Green cut NCAT’s lead to 3-1 as she scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first.

FAMU picked up another run in the bottom the third as Oliphant scored on a Nikki Terryn sacrifice fly to right field, cutting the Lady Aggies’ lead to 3-2.

The Lady Rattlers picked up two runs in the bottom of the fifth for the 4-3 final as Strafford singled to right field scoring Oliphant. Then Strafford would score on a Joyce Harold sacrifice fly to left field.

FAMU will return to action tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. as they will face Bethune-Cookman in an elimination game. B-CU dropped a 10-1 decision to Howard Thursday evening.

? Copyright 2007 meacsports.com