McNeese State Advances in Southland Tournament
No. 4 McNeese State 7, No. 5 UTSA 1
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - The No. 4 seed McNeese State began its title defense on the strength of seven runs on nine hits in a 7-1 win over No. 5 seed UTSA in game one of the 2011 Southland Conference Softball Tournament in Huntsville, Texas.
With just three hits through four innings the McNeese offense came alive in the bottom of the fifth inning to score four runs. Senior short stop Molly Guidry hit her team-leading ninth home run of the season with a three-run bomb to left center field to give the Cowgirls a 3-1 lead. Two batters later, sophomore utility player Kourtney Kober followed with her fourth RBI of the season driving in junior Dani Price.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, senior Katie Shumaker put the game on ice for the Cowgirls with her fourth home run of the season on a two-run center field blast. After a walk by Guidry and a single by Price, Guidry scored on error by the third after a double steal to push the McNeese lead to 7-1.
McNeese State senior right-hander Kayla Shepherd recorded her league-leading 19th win of the season. A third-team all-conference selection, Shepherd went the distance in the win posting her 28th complete game of the year, which also leads the conference. Shepherd recorded seven strikeouts and allowed six hits and one earned run.
The win for McNeese State marks the third consecutive season with at least 30 wins, all coming under coach Natalie Poole.
UTSA senior Emily Humpal took the loss for the Roadrunners moving to 10-5 on the year. Humpal gave up four runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings. Junior Nikki Goff gave UTSA its only run of the game in the top of the third inning with a solo shot to left field, her sixth home run of the season.
McNeese State advances to face the No. 1 seed and regular season champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in game three approximately at 7 p.m. UTSA will play next in game six on Friday and will play the loser of game four in an elimination game at 1:30 p.m.
Post Game Quotes
McNeese State Head Coach Natalie Poole
"I thought we got out of a lot of jams and we came around in the middle of the game. We got people on base early, we just couldn't score. As the game went on we got tougher."
Senior Pitcher Kayla Shepherd
"This was a tough game but we didn't give up. It's always tough when you play a team six times in one season. We have to just play our game no matter how many times we play a team in a season. At the beginning of the game, I was playing pitch-by-pitch and then after I gave up the homerun, I had to bear down and hit my spots."
Senior Short stop Molly Guidry - On the home run hit
"She threw me a screwball and I was ready to hit it because she hadn't thrown me anything to hit all game. I swung at the first good pitch."
UTSA Interim head coach Stephanie Hughes
"McNeese hit the ball well today. They came up with hits in big situations and we didn't. We had a couple big opportunities early that we missed out on and that hurt us."