VALDOSTA, Ga. - On the same day that </span>Heather Robinson, </span>Kiley Rusen, and </span>Caitlyn Calhoun all earned NFCA All-South Region honors, the trio helped lead Valdosta State to a huge 8-2 victory over the Shorter Hawks in the first round of the NCAA Division II Softball South 2 Regional Tournament in Valdosta, Ga.</span>
In Thursday's victory, which lifted the Blazers to a 41-12-2 overall record, Valdosta State's offense posted fourteen hits and tallied one or more runs in all but one inning.</span>
Shorter, who fell to 30-21 and will face West Florida at 4:00 p.m. on Friday in the loser's bracket, struck first in the contest with one first inning run. The Blazers fired right back, however, thanks to </span>Chelsea Canara, who delivered a timely two-out, two-run single in the bottom half of the frame to put VSU on top.</span>
In the second, Savannah Thomas led off the top half with a single and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Taylor Ann Oda. Carson Carriker capitalized on the opportunity during the next at bat with an RBI single, which plated Thomas and tied the contest up at 2-2.</span>
The Blazers didn't allow the tie to hold for long though, as Head Coach </span>Thomas Macera's group continued to fire away at Shorter starter Payton Lippert (17-12) and scored another two-out run on a base hit by </span>Kiley Rusen that deflected off of the glove of Ericka Bynum at first base and traveled far enough away from the bag to allow Rusen to reach and </span>Danielle Patterson to score from third base.</span>
Seven of VSU's eight runs came with two outs in the contest, and the additional run came on a solo blast off the bat of Robinson, who received her first career All-South Region award as a member of the esteemed First Team earlier in the day. Once the Blazers claimed the lead in the bottom of the second, Blazer starter </span>Caitlyn Calhoun (28-5) settled in to blank the Hawks the rest of the way.</span>
Eight of VSU's nine hitters on the day had at least one hit, and Canara led the way with a 3-for-3 effort that included three RBI's. Patterson also racked up three hits, while Robinson and </span>Jaime Phillips each added two.</span>
VSU will square off against Rollins on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the winner's bracket, with the winner advancing to the South 2 Region Final on Saturday. The losing team will play at 6:30 p.m. Friday evening against the survivor of the 4:00 p.m. elimination game between UWF and Shorter.</span>
For more information on the NCAA South 2 Regional, including links for live coverage to all games and full results for each game already played, visit the Tournament Central page </span>HERE.</span>
