Box Score

BUIES CREEK, N.C. - The second-seeded Coastal Carolina softball team stayed alive in the Big South Tournament, bouncing back for a 7-5 victory over No. 4 seed Liberty in a game that started late Friday night and ended early Saturday morning.

The Chanticleers (33-23) advanced to Saturday's semifinal round where they will face top-seeded Longwood at 12:30 p.m., less than 12 hours after the victory over the Flames ended. Coastal, which moved into the semifinal round for the sixth straight year, will need two wins over the Lancers to reach Sunday's championship game. The Chants were in a similar spot en route to their 2012 title, needing to beat the tournament's No. 1 seed Radford twice to reach the title game.

Kory Hayden went 2 for 4 and hit a grand slam that gave Coastal a 7-0 lead in the game while moving her reached base streak to 35 straight. The four RBIs also gave Hayden 187 for her career, moving her into third place in Big South history.

Fellow senior Kiana Quolas also moved further up the conference's career record list, notching her 91st victory and 100th complete game. She now ranks second alone in Big South history in wins and is tied for third in complete games. The righthander allowed seven hits and struck out three. With 587 career strikeouts, she is now eighth in that category, right behind former teammate Ashley Bagwell.

Amanda Daneker added two hits and two RBIs for the Chants, while Bri Chiusano had two hits and two runs scored and Morgan Noad doubled, had an RBI and scored a run.

The Chanticleers took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Chiusano reached on an error and Quolas was hit by a pitch. After a double steal and another error that loaded the bases, Noad hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Chiusano and Daneker blooped an RBI single to shallow left.

Noad and Daneker then helped make it a 3-0 score in the third as Noad hit a high flyball to deep center that fell for a two-out double and Daneker followed by ripping an RBI liner down the left-field line.

Hayden's then hit her grand slam in the fourth inning. Kailey Mellen drew a leadoff walk and after a forceout, Chiusano bunted to the shortstop for a hit. Quolas then grounded one to short and the throw for the forceout at third was high, loading the bases. Liberty brought in No. 1 pitcher Chandler Ball in relief, but Hayden greeted her with a blast over the fence in left-center for her 12th homer of the season and 60th of her career.

Liberty quickly got back into it with a grand slam of its own in the fifth. A single, fielder's choice and a walk loaded the bases and cleanup hitter Madison Kotchey lined the first pitch of her at-bat just over the fence in right-center. The Flames got another run back in the sixth on a pair of singles, a wild pitch and an RBI groundout, but Quolas got a groundout to end the inning with runners on the corners.

The Flames put the tying runs on the seventh on an error and a two-out single, the lead runner tried to advance to third on a pitch in the dirt and Noad threw to Hayden in plenty of time for the game-ending caught stealing.

No. 6 Presbyterian and No. 5 Charleston Southern also advanced to Saturday and will meet at 10 a.m., with the Blue Hose needing one win to move to the final.