No. 4 Sam Houston State Walks Off to Beat No. 5 Central Arkansas
Southland Conference
Box Score
CONWAY, Ark. – A walk-off, infield single propelled No. 4 Sam Houston State to a 3-2 victory over No. 5 Central Arkansas at the Farris Field in Conway, Ark.
With the game-winning run at third in the bottom of the seventh, second baseman Emily Bounds hit a ball at the shortstop to score first baseman Codi Carpenter and send the Bearkats to a night game with the No. 1 seed and regular season champion, McNeese.
First pitch between Sam Houston and the Cowgirls is set for 6:30 p.m. today. Central Arkansas will take on the loser of No. 2 Nicholls and No. 3 Lamar tomorrow at 10 a.m.
Sam Houston State catcher Megan Crosby was able to tie things up 2-2 in the seventh with a sacrifice fly to right center after the Bears rallied in the top half of the inning. Central Arkansas was down to its final strike when left fielder Hannah Stirton scorched a hit to the right-center gap to bring in two runs and put the Bears up 2-1.
The Bearkats got on the scoreboard first after leaving nine runners on base through the first five innings. With runners on the corners in the bottom of the sixth, center fielder Megan McDonald hit toward the second baseman, scoring right fielder Samantha Belongia and reaching on a fielder’s choice.
Sam Houston’s starting pitcher Tayler Atkinson gave up just two hits in her five innings of work before Lindsey McLeod came in for relief and earned the win. The Bears’ Kayla Gomness gave up just two earned runs off 11 hits in her complete game performance.
Due to anticipated inclement weather, all of tomorrow’s games will be pushed up by one hour. The first game will start at 10 a.m. with the last game of Thursday scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
Games 1-9 will be streamed live on the Southland Digital Network with Chris Mycoskie, Steve Owens and Chris Kane sharing play-by-play duties. The games will be available via
southland.org/live and the
Southland Conference app. In addition to the mobile app, the app is now available for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Roku.
The championship round will be an exclusive presentation of ESPN3, which can be viewed via
WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app with Mycoskie and former Southeastern Louisiana pitcher Kati Morse on the call.