HICKORY, N.C. – Stacked with plenty of talent-rich new faces as well as solid returners, the University of South Carolina Aiken softball team continued a solid start to their 2011 campaign as the Pacers split their first road doubleheader of the season with the 13th-ranked Bears of Lenoir-Rhyne Sunday afternoon at Bears Field. The Pacers claimed the first game 5-4 before the Bears scraped out a 7-6 eight-inning victory in the second contest.

After their second doubleheader with a South Atlantic Conference foe in as many days, USC Aiken is now 7-1 on the 2011 campaign while Lenoir-Rhyne moves to 7-3 for the season.

In the first game, the Pacers wasted no time getting things started in the first inning as Whitney Clary (Newberry, S.C./Newberry) singled to reach base. She then showed her swift feet as she raced all the way home off a double by Lauren Locklear (Charleston, S.C./Wando) to put USC Aiken up 1-0.

Lenoir-Rhyne answered in the bottom of the inning when Carlee Carpenter ripped a home run over the fence in right-center field to tie the game at one-all.

Down 4-3 heading into the top of the seventh inning, USC Aiken loaded the bases with Clary on third, Locklear on second and Kelley King (Chesterfield, S.C./Chesterfield) on first and no outs registered on the board.

Lindsey Jones (North Augusta, S.C./North Augusta) stepped to the plate and sent a single to center field scoring Clary to tie the Bears at four-all.

Catcher Nicole Borden (Jacksonville, Fla./Bolles School) then came to bat and sent a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Locklear to give the Pacers a 5-4 lead heading into the bottom of the final inning that they would protect to the end.

The Pacers' defense restrained the nationally-ranked Bears in the bottom of the seventh to secure the win for sophomore pitcher Lauren Rickabaugh.

Rickabaugh (North Augusta, S.C./North Augusta) improved to 2-0 on the season in the circle for USC Aiken.

Megan Laxton suffered the loss in the circle for Lenoir-Rhyne, falling to 0-2 so far this season.

Early in the second game, the two teams matched each other tit-for-tat with both squads scoring two runs in the first inning and then a single run in the second.

With the score still knotted at 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Lenoir-Rhyne edged out ahead of USC Aiken 5-3 when Jessica Fellmeth ripped a two-run home run over the center field fence.

However, the Pacers kept things interesting in the top of the seventh inning as they not only answered, they edged ahead by a nose when Kayla Denham (Palatka, Fla./Daytona State) ripped her first home run of the season to score three runs and give USC Aiken the advantage 6-5 heading into the bottom of the inning.

With two outs, Carpenter kept the Bears' hopes alive when she hit a double to score Kristin Lackey and send the game into extra innings.

The Bears would eventually edge out the victory in the bottom of the eighth inning with two outs when Lackey singled to center field and gave Haily Jarman the push she needed to cross the dish.

One day removed from pitching 10 solid innings, Kylee Knop (Oxford, Ga/Kirkwood) struck out six batters in eight innings of work, but had to settle for her first loss of the season to move to 2-1 for the year.

Lauren Harris captured the win in the circle for Lenoir-Rhyne to improve to 3-1 on the season.

USC Aiken will return home for a Peach Belt Conference doubleheader on Tuesday, Feb. 22 against in-state rival Lander University. The 3 p.m. twinbill with the Bearcats will be both teams' league opener with the second game to follow shortly after the conclusion of the first game.