Texas State to Play McNeese State for Southland Softball Tournament Title
SAN MARCOS, Texas - On
the strength of a 4-1 effort, the No. 2 seed Texas State knocked the No. 3 seed
UT Arlington out of the 2010 Southland Conference Tournament in San Marcos,
Texas at Bobcat Field.
Texas
State freshman Anna Hernandez put the Bobcats on the board first (1-0) in the
bottom of the second inning with an RBI single to right center field scoring
junior Jenna Emery.
UT
Arlington senior Cara Hulme answered to tie the game (1-1) in the top of the
third inning with her team-leading 11th home run of the season.
Hernandez
struck again in the bottom of the fourth inning with an RBI double to center
field scoring junior McKenzie Baack giving the Bobcats a 2-1 lead.
In
the bottom of the fifth, Baack hit a two-run double to the left field corner scoring
junior Lindsay Matt and senior Kristina Tello, giving the Bobcats their winning
4-1 lead.
McNeese
State and Texas State met for the 2009 tournament championship in Lake Charles,
La., with the Bobcats coming away with a 2-1 win.
Texas
State leads the conference with four tournament crowns and will attempt to
become just the third league team to win two consecutive tournament titles. The
last team to win two in a row was Nicholls University in 1996 and 1997.
The
2010 Southland tournament championship will feature a repeat of the 2009 finals
when the Bobcats edged McNeese 2-1 in Lake Charles, La.
The tournament format features a six-team double elimination format. The Cowgirls are 3-0 thus far and Texas State is 2-1. In order for the Bobcats to win the tournament they must beat McNeese in game 10 to force a game 11.
The tournament championship is set for a 6:05 p.m. time and will be broadcast by the Southland Conference Television Network.
Live
stats as well as streaming video and audio are available on SLC NOW on the
Southland Conference web site at www.southland.org.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Texas State Head Coach - Ricci Woodard
(On today's win)
"It's
good to see our team come in and get after it. I thought we played a great ball
game. I would have liked to have seen us score a few more runs
earlier in the ball game; but I thought we stuck with it, played hard
and played well - and it paid off for us."
"It was huge. For us to have a chance
to win this thing out, and win two more ball games, we need to give Chandler
Hall a little rest. I thought Libby came in and did a great job of keeping us
in the ballgame."
"Now you just play and hope you get a
couple of breaks here and there, but we have to swing the bat obviously better
than we did this morning."
"The girls understand it's do or die,
so if we want to continue to play ball we have to win this game."
Texas State junior first base - McKenzie
Baack
(On today's win)
"We just tried
to stay focused and get hits. We had to score runs that game obviously to come
out of that last game. So that was the big focus of that game. Just see the
ball hit the bat for everybody."
"It
feels great to be making it to this game. We wish we were making it here
undefeated, but we're ready to come and take two from McNeese and go ahead and
win this thing and move on to regionals."
UT Arlington Head Coach - Debbie Hedrick
(On today's loss)
"I hate to see it
come to an end, but overall I'm very proud of our girls. I thought we had a
good tournament. You never want to lose. No one wants to lose, but I'm proud of
them. They played their hardest and never gave up and they fought hard, but it
just wasn't meant to be."