Wildcats finish second at LSC tournament
ACU forces if-necessary title game, but falls to Mustangs, 5-1
IRVING -- Midwestern State rallied for four runs in the final two innings Sunday to beat ACU, 5-1, in the championship game of the Lone Star Confernece Post-Season Softball Tournament at Southwest Park.
The Wildcats forced the if-necessary championship game earlier Sunday with a 2-0 win over the Mustangs, handing Midwestern State its first loss of the tournament. ACU finishes its regular season at 41-17, and now awaits word from the NCAA on bids to next week's NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament. The Wildcats were No. 2 in the regional poll that was released before the LSC tournament began, making them a virtual lock for an at-large bid to the tournament.
In Sunday's first game, ACU pitcher Jennifer Leal scattered nine hits over seven scoreless innings to give the Wildcats a chance. Her teammates took advantage, scoring a single run in both their first and last at-bats to win, 2-0.
Jessica Johnson had an RBI sacrifice fly in the first inning to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead, and then Samantha Borgeson added an RBI single in the top of the seventh to give the Wildcats an insurance run. The Mustangs stranded nine runners on base as Leal made big pitch after big pitch to get the Wildcats out of innings.
Midwestern had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the sixth before Leal got a strikeout and popout to end the inning. The tying run came to the plate for the Mustangs in the bottom of the seventh before Leal got the last batter of the game to fly out to end the game.
MSU pitcher Brittany Wilson dominated the Wildcats in the championship game, allowing just three hits and one unearned run while striking out five batters.
MSU fell behind 1-0 before tying the score, 1-1, in the fourth inning and going ahead 2-1 in the sixth inning when Sarah Huddleston doubled home Racheal Jackson, who had doubled to lead off the inning. The Mustangs broke things open in the top half of the seventh, scoring three runs on three hits and an ACU error.
ACU started its last at-bat with a runner reaching by error, but MSU's Willson secured the championship for the Mustangs by getting a strikeout, groundout and pop up to end the game.
Willson, who set an LSC record with her 93rd career victory in the championship game, was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
Willson was joined on the all-tournament team by: teammates Sarah Huddleston, Allison Tidwell and Kristen Stonecipher from MSU, Borgeson, Amber Jankowski and Leal of Abilene Christian, Amanda Arnold from Texas Woman's, Kandace Kubat of Angelo State, Lindsay Tripp and Alli Blake from Central Oklahoma, and Elicia Marquez, Kylie Ferguson and Christina Cearley of Southeastern Oklahoma.
