SALEM, Va. -- Virginia Wesleyan College's Marlins moved closer to a spot in the 2011 Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship game by winning its first two games of the tournament at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex on Thursday.

With a 7-4 victory over Roanoke College and a 6-2 win over Lynchburg College in the record books, the Marlins will now compete in Friday's 2 p.m. winner's bracket finale against surprising Randolph College.  The winner of that 2 p.m. game secures a spot in Saturday's championships game. Randolph, the No. 8 seed, opened with a 6-4 win over No. 1 seeded Eastern Mennonite University and followed with an 11-4 win over No. 5 Guilford College.

VWC, seeded No. 6, faced No. 3 seeded Roanoke in the Marlins' first game and put the Maroons on the chase immediately.  The Marlins scored twice in the top of the first inning and rode that lead into the fifth when Roanoke (27-10) produced two runs to tie the game.  The tie continued into extra innings, where VWC found the bats one more time.

The Marlins (27-9) scored five times in the top of the ninth, taking advantage of three hits and three Roanoke errors. Brenae Pettit stroked a two-run single down the right line to help the scoring and Chelsea Henline smashed the ball over the center fielder's head for a two-run triple.

Roanoke came back in the bottom of the inning to producd three hits that helped score two runs, but the VWC defense produced the outs to finish the game.

Rookie pitcher Mackenzie Creech worked all nine innings for the Marlins and struck out 10 batters.  Creech also pitched the second game against Lynchburg and struck out four more batters to increase her VWC rookie record total to 141, also the fifth highest single season total in VWC history.  She also improved her record to 16-5, tying the VWC first-year victory mark set by Tina Clark in 1985 and tied by Heidi Hill in 1998.

VWC also led from the start against the Hornets (21-17), posting at least one run in each of the first four innings to open up a 6-0 lead.  Lynchburg came back to avert the shutout with a pair of runs in the fifth, but the Marlins once again produced the defense to end the contest.

Brianna Bertovich hit 4-for-6 in the two games for VWC, which also included a 4-for-8 showing by Jaclyn Quinn and a 4-for-9 showing by Pettit.  Morgan Stephens, Season Dailey, Andrea Shannon and Henline all belted a hit in each contest.

--AMDG--