MWU ends Abilene Christian's season, 11-2
5/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
DURANT, Okla. ? The 2009 softball season came to a disappointing end Saturday at the Southeastern Oklahoma State Softball complex when Missouri Western took advantage of four Wildcat errors and eliminated Abilene Christian with an 11-2 win in the NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament.
The Wildcats defeated MWU Friday 2-1 to move to the winner's bracket game Saturday at 11 a.m. Southeastern Oklahoma State forced ACU to the brink of elimination with a 4-3 win in that game before the Griffons finished the job in the nightcap.
ACU was off to a quick start thanks to solo home runs from Jessica Shiery and Melissa Rodriguez to give the Wildcats a 2-0 first-inning lead. However, a two-out error scored two runs in the top of the third and the Griffons tied the score. MWU's Brittany Douglas hit a solo home run in the fourth inning to give the visitors the lead at 3-2.
From there, the wheels came off for the Wildcats in the sixth; three errors along with some timely hitting by the Griffons led to five-run inning putting MWU up 8-2. Then in the seventh, the visitors added three insurance runs to increase the lead to 11-2.
The Wildcats went down in order in the bottom of the seventh to end the game and ACU's season. MWU starter Allison Jones surrendered the two solo home runs in the first inning and was pulled in favor of reliever Jonnelle Belger who closed the game with six innings of work and held the Wildcats to two hits and no runs to pick up the win.
ACU's 43 wins on the season was a school record surpassing the 2006 squad that went 42-19. The Wildcats finished the season at 43-15. Head coach Chantiel Wilson said goodbye to seven seniors playing in their final games and all seven started Saturday.
Kim Partin, the senior pitcher and only four-year player on the team through 6.1 innings in the loss; she finished the year at 11-3 on the season. The other six seniors were regulars in the starting lineup. The catcher Shiery, first baseman Katie Cornelison, second baseman Jackie Gentile, the shortstop Rodriguez, leftfielder Brooke Whittlesey and rightfielder Shelby McElvain all finished their two-year careers in the loss Saturday.
The Griffons advance to Sunday where they will have to beat SEOSU twice to advance to the super-regional championship next weekend. Game time for the Savage Storm and MWU is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday. MWU's win over ACU improved the team to 47-12.
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