Greeneville, Tenn.----Brittany Murray tossed a three-hit shutout to lead second-seeded Catawba College to a 5-0 victory over the seventh-seeded Bulldogs of Wingate University Thursday afternoon at Red Edmonds Field in an opening day game of the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Softball Championship. The eight-team, double-elimination tournament is being held on the campus of Tusculum College.
 
The Catawba Indians (33-15) advance in the winner’s bracket of the tournament and will face No. 3 Anderson Friday at 10:30 a.m. at Edmonds Field. Wingate (26-23) will face No. 7 seed Brevard in an elimination game at Chuckey-Doak High School Friday at 10:30 a.m.
 
Catawba pounded out 11 hits on the day, getting multi-hit games from Michaela Boyd, Alli Justice and Tara Gibbs. Wingate freshman catcher Betsy Braswell (Rocky Mount, N.C.) tallied a pair of doubles, her 10th and 11th of the season for the Bulldogs.
 
Murray went the distance to improve to 16-9 on the year, allowing three hits, two walks and three strikeouts. Wingate freshman right-hander Miranda Paul (Virginia Beach, Va.) allowed five runs in six innings of work, falling to 22-21 on the year.
 
Catawba plated two runs in the first inning and three more in the third. In the opening frame, Justice drove in the first run of the game with her ninth double of the season, while Kelsey Burgess drove in the other with a sacrifice fly.
 
The Catawba Indians sent eight batters to the plate in the third, scoring three times on five hits, highlighted by Emily Huneycutt’s RBI double, her ninth of the season.