The Bridgewater College softball team avoided elimination in the NCAA Regional Tournament Friday morning by defeating top-seeded Lynchburg College, 2-1.

BC fell behind in the first inning when Brittany Allsop doubled to lead off the inning, advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt and then scored on an illegal pitch by BC pitcher Becky Schmidt. Ashley Gills came on to pitch with two outs in the inning to relieve Schmidt and prevented any further damage by the Hornets in the inning.

The Eagles had a runner in scoring position in every inning but were unable to come up with the timely hit until the sixth inning when Lauren Childress scored the game tying run on a ball hit by Leah Cossentino that was ruled an error on Lynchburg's third baseman Rachel Gallagher. Then in the seventh, the Eagles scored the eventual winning run on an RBI double by Kaitlyn Bowman.

Gills earned the win for the Eagles, improving to 14-4 on the season. Gills did not allow a run while striking out six over six and a third innings.

The Eagles and Hornets will play again on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. If the Eagles win, they would play at 2:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon against Emory University.