Greenville, S.C. – Freshmen Christina McCoy and Ansley Chiang combined to go 5-for-5 with three runs batted in to propel Furman to a 9-3 victory over Lipscomb in the final game of the Furman Softball Invitational Sunday afternoon at Pepsi Stadium.
 
The victory gave the Paladins a 3-1 record for the weekend and improved Furman to 7-2 on the season. Lipscomb slipped to 3-6.
 
After Chiang got the Paladins on the board with a sacrifice fly to drive in Lauralee Scott in the bottom of the third inning, the Paladins struck for three runs in the fourth inning. Ashlee Lykins, who registered her 150^th career hit in the first, opened the frame by reaching on an error and Sylvia Burroughs followed with a base on balls. Two batters later, Hannah Poole legged out an infield single to load the bases. Scott drove in Lykins with a sacrifice fly to left-center before Chiang drilled a line drive that caromed off the third baseman. Two runs scored as the shortstop fielded the ball and fired past the third base bag and into the dugout.
 
Lipscomb answered with three runs of its own in the top of the fifth inning to trim the Paladin advantage to 4-3, but junior Emme Buzhardt came out of the bullpen to induce a ground ball and strand two Bison runners. Furman put the game away in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Poole reached on an error and came around to score following singles from Scott and McCoy. Scott raced on when Chiang's sacrifice bunt was thrown wide of first and McCoy scored on an RBI single up the middle from Ainsley Yoshizumi. A third error in the inning by the Bison's allowed Lykins to reach base and Yoshizumi to score.
 
McCoy added her third hit of the day and second RBI single of the afternoon in the bottom of the sixth for the final 9-3 margin. She went 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs while Chiang finished 2-for-2. Burroughs singled and drew three walks for the Paladins.
 
Starter Sierra Tufts improved to 4-0 in the circle after allowing three runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings of work. She fanned two batters and did not issue a walk.
 
Ryleigh Sapp (2-2) suffered the loss for Lipscomb. She gave up four runs, three of which were unearned, on five hits in three innings in the circle.
 
Furman is back in action on Wednesday at 5 p.m. when it faces South Carolina in Columbia, S.C.
 
FURMAN INVITATIONAL SCHEDULE
Friday
Georgetown 2, Lipscomb 1
Lipscomb 7, Towson 3
Georgetown 6, IUPUI 0
Furman 3, IUPUI 2
Saturday
Towson 3, Lipscomb 0 
Lipscomb 5, IUPUI 4
Georgetown 12, IUPUI 4 (5 inn.)
Furman 5, Towson 1
Georgetown 8, Furman 4
Sunday
Towson 8, IUPUI 6
Georgetown 5, Towson 4
Furman 9, Lipscomb 3