Taylor Hodges, Sports Information Director

COLUMBIA, Tenn. – The Lady Lions (26-14, 16-11 AMC) softball season came to a close on Thursday after falling 4-2 to the No. 1 seed Columbia (33-10, 23-3 AMC) in the first game and 5-4 to Lyon (33-13, 17-7 AMC) in the elimination game.

After three and a half innings with no score, the Cougars jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Lady Lions got one back in the top of the fifth when Kaylyn Graham drove in Brittan Jarrell with a sacrifice fly to center field to make it a 3-1 game.

Columbia got its lead back to three in the bottom of the fifth before Caitlin Mitchell hit a sacrifice fly to center field, bringing in Lilly Bombard.

The Lady Lions had runners on first and second in the top of the seventh, but were unable to extend the game.

They then faced off against Lyon with their tournament lives on the line later in the afternoon after defeating the Scots in Wednesday's opening-round matchup.

It was off the bat of Mitchell that the Lady Lions took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning.

Annalise Jarnagin hit a one-out sing to left field. After a second out was recorded, Mitchell stepped up and delivered a monster hit over the center field wall to put the Lady Lions on top.

The Scots quickly responded though, taking the lead in the bottom half of the second inning with three runs of their own.

Lyon added one more run in the bottom of the third to extend their lead to two, but Mitchell added her third RBI of the game in the top of the fourth with a single that scored Bombard.

The Lady Lions were unable to keep the Scots off the board in the bottom of the fifth inning, but they were able to cut it to a one-run game in the top of the sixth when Jarnagin hit a solo shot with one out. That gave the Lady Lions 37 total home runs on the season, the most in program history, breaking the record of 20 which was set in 2005 and was tied in 2007 and 2012.

All 15 Lady Lions were named to the Academic All-Conference team. Morgan Crawford, Annalise Jarnagin, and Kaylyn Graham were all named to the First-Team All AMC, and Sophie Dunavant was named to the Second Team.