The Texas State softball team captured its second Southland Conference title in three seasons with a comeback win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday in Huntsville. The win advances the Bobcats to the NCAA Tournament, where they will square off against No. 3 Texas in Austin Friday in the opening round of a double-elimination regional. The University of Houston and Louisiana-Lafayette round out the members of the four-team regional to be played at McComb Field in Austin. (Photo courtesy of Texas State University)
STAFF REPORTS
The Texas State softball team captured the 2011 Southland Conference Tournament Championship at the Bearkat Softball Complex on Saturday. The title is the second in three years for Texas State as it earns the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
The Texas State Bobcat softball team will take on No. 3 Texas, beginning at 6 p.m., on Friday in the opening round of the 2011 NCAA Softball Championship Tournament in Austin. The double-elimination Austin Regional will also include Houston and Louisiana-Lafayette.
In the Southland Conference Tournament, the Bobcats outscored their opponents 24-7 to highlight their successful run. Junior utility/pitcher Chandler Hall was named the Most Valuable Player. Jenna Emery, McKenzie Baack, Haley Lemons and Anne Marie Taylor all joined Hall on the all-tournament team.
In the championship game, Texas State fell behind for the first time in the tournament when A&M-Corpus Christi’s Brittany Tucker hit a solo homerun over the centerfield wall in the bottom of the first. Both teams went scoreless in the second, but Tucker returned in the third to hit a two-run slammer off the scoreboard to give the Islanders a 3-0 lead after three innings of play.
Allyce Rother led off the fifth inning with a single to right field. Next, Lindsay Matt was able to garner a walk and Chandler Hall singled to load the bases. The Bobcats generated their first run when McKenzie Baack hit an RBI single to drive in Rother and move the runners over. Texas State wasn’t quite done yet as senior stud Jenna Emery batted the ball to centerfield for a double that cleared the bases and gave Texas State the 4-3 edge. The Islanders decided to make a pitching change, but it didn’t seem to divert the Bobcats momentum as former Hays High star Anna Hernandez joined in on the hitting spree with a double to centerfield that scored Emery. Texas State tacked on five runs with four hits to spin the game in favor of the maroon and gold.
The Bobcats decided to add three runs in the top of the sixth to extend their lead to five runs. Rother began the inning with a leadoff double, followed by a single by Matt and a walk by Hall to load the bases with no outs. Lemons singled to push Rother home and give Texas State its sixth run of the day. Matt scored on an error and Hall on a sacrifice fly by Hernandez to take an 8-3 edge.
A&M-Corpus Christi was able to score a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth to cut Texas State’s lead to three. The three-run lead would prove to be enough for Texas State as the Bobcats earned their fifth conference tournament title.
“Obviously, it was a group of young ladies with experience today,” Texas State head coach Ricci Woodard said. “They didn’t get rattled when we got down by a couple of runs early in the ball game. They stayed with it and continued to make adjustments.”
