FERRUM, VA – Graduate student right-hander Jenna Walling homered and picked up the game-one pitching win and then drove in the winning run in game two with a squeeze bunt, while senior right fielder Paige Strickland registered six hits, as 12th-ranked Francis Marion University swept a doubleheader from Ferrum College, Saturday (Apr. 18) in Conference Carolinas softball action.  The Patriots won the opener 9-1 and the second contest 5-3.
 
Francis Marion finishes its regular season with eight consecutive wins and improves to to 39-10 overall and 23-5 in the conference.  The Patriots will enter this week's Conference Carolinas Tournament at Tyger River Park in Duncan, S.C., as the top seed.  FMU's first game will be Thursday at 4 p.m. against the winner of eighth-seeded Belmont Abbey College and ninth-seeded King University.  The tournament continues through Sunday, Apr. 26.
 
Senior right fielder Paige Strickland led FMU at the plate in the opening contest with four hits, including a home run, and three runs scored.  Sophomore catcher Rylee Gray registered two hits, including a homer, while senior left fielder Anderson Thrower had two hits and two runs scored.
 
Walling (25-6) scattered four hits, while fanning a career-high equaling 12 batters to earn the win.  She continues to lead Division II in wins, complete games, and innings pitched.  She recorded her 82nd career victory in 98 decisions, while moving into third place on the program's career strikeouts list with 514, passing Amy Birch (2000-03).
 
A pair of two-out hits staked FMU to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second.  Strickland singled to right field with one out and scored the first run on a double to the right-center field wall by senior second baseman Maddy Golka.  Graduate student center fielder Mikaela Goss then plated Golka with an RBI-single.
 
In the third, Walling doubled the margin to 4-0 with a two-run homer to left, and Strickland made it 5-0 later in the frame with a solo shot over the right-center field wall.
 
A pair of unearned runs in the fourth swelled the lead to 7-0.  Senior shortstop Madalyn White worked a one-out walk and Thrower reached on a fielding error.  Both runners moved up to second and third on a double steal.  With two outs and Walling at the plate, White drew a pick-off throw from the Ferrum catcher that sailed wide and down the left field line allowing both runners to score.
 
After Ferrum scored its lone run in the sixth, Gray accounted for the final runs with a two-run homer to left field in the seventh.
 
Emily Wood (4-12) was tagged with the game-one loss for Ferrum.
 
In the second contest, Ferrum scored three times on four hits in the bottom of the first, but was blanked by FMU senior lefty Alyssa Poston (10-2) for the final six frames.  Poston allowed only two additional hits and she finished with five strikeouts.
 
The Patriots knotted the game with three runs in the third.  graduate student second baseman Rylie Webster led off the inning with a double to the left-centerfield wall.  Goss plated Webster with a double of her own.  White reached on an infield single to third putting two runners on.  Both runners moved up one base on a wild pitch.  Walling drove in Goss with a sacrifice fly and Strickland followed with an RBI-single through the right side.
 
The game remained tied until the top of the seventh.  Goss led off with a single through the left side and moved to second on a passed ball.  White put down a bunt single to first with Goss moving to third.  White stole second base, before a ground out that forced both runners to hold.  Walling then laid down her squeeze bunt with Goss crossing home plate with the go-ahead run.  Strickland added an insurance run as she singled home White with two outs.
 
Strickland had two hits and two RBIs in the second contest, while White and Goss both had two hits and scored twice.  Strickland had a home run taken away in the top of the first on a spectacular catch by the Panthers' centerfielder.
 
Ferrum reliever Chloe Constantino (3-16) surrendered the two seventh inning runs.
 
Thrower extended her hitting streak to 13 games and White extended her streak of safely reaching base to 21 straight contests.