April 24, 2009
Aggies lose, but still alive at LSC’s
DURANT, Oklahoma (April 24) – With the toughest road to the Lone Star Conference title, the Cameron Aggie softball team (32-21, 17-7 LSC North) opened up the LSC’s postseason tournament this afternoon with a tough 11-3 loss to the #5 Angelo State Rambelles. CU will now face the #4 Southeastern Oklahoma State Savage Storm in the first round of the consolation bracket.
“We definitely didn’t bring our ‘A’ game today,” Head Coach Beth Watson said. “Give credit to Angelo State because they are a great team, evidenced by their #5 ranking, but we didn’t play our best today. It’s unfortunate because you want to be playing your best in the tournament and we didn’t.”
Today’s game opened up with the Aggies taking the first lead. A clutch RBI-single by junior catcher Callie Schlatter scored senior shortstop Megan Young from second base to give CU the 1-0 lead.
“It was exciting to get on the board early, but doing that means nothing unless you can hang onto the lead,” Coach Watson said. “We didn’t hit the ball very well and left 5 runners on base, which you can’t do in the playoffs.”
ASU stormed back in their first at-bats of the game with a three-run bottom of the first inning thanks to a three-run home run. The Rambelles led for the remainder of the game, although the Aggie women made it interesting in the fourth and fifth frames.
Down 5-1, the Aggies got a solo home run from junior Ashton McBride in the fourth inning, and an unearned run off of a fielding error in the fifth inning to make it 5-3.
Angelo State quickly shut the door on any comeback attempt with an RBI single and a grand slam home run in the bottom of the fifth inning to make it 10-1.
After shutting the Aggies out in the top of the sixth, ASU hit a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth to secure the run-rule victory. Up by eight runs after playing the required six innings, ASU was awarded the win with the game being called early.
Cameron scored 3 runs, 2 earned, on 5 hits in the game with just 1 error. On the other side, Angelo State scored 11 runs, 10 earned, on 11 hits with a pair of errors.
Freshman pitcher Carrie Harvey (19-7) started the game on the mound for CU and was saddled with the loss after going 4.0 innings. She gave up 10 runs, 9 earned, on 9 hits after facing 24 batters. Harvey also gave up a pair of walks and threw 6 strikeouts.
Junior pitcher Ashton McBride (11-13) finished the game on the hill and pitched the final 1.1 innings giving up an earned run with 2 hits. She faced only 5 batters.
Offensively the only Aggie to record multiple hits in the game was Young who went 2-3 with 2 singles and a team-high 2 runs.
McBride went 1-3 at the plate with a run, an RBI, and the team’s only extra-base hit with her fourth inning home run.
Schlatter and junior second baseman Amy Ribble were the only other Aggies to record a hit in the game. Like McBride, they both went 1-3 at the plate.
“I think we can use today’s loss as motivation for tomorrow,” Coach Watson said. “We certainly didn’t win more than 30 games in the regular season to get to the postseason and go 0-2, so we’ll be playing hard tomorrow.”
Cameron faces off against Southeastern Oklahoma State tomorrow (April 25) at 1:30pm in Durant. Should CU lose they will be eliminated from the double-elimination tournament and their 2009 season will likely be over.
However, if CU wins they will go onto play the loser of the Angelo State and Texas A&M-Kingsville match-up at 4:00pm on Saturday. SOSU and CU split their double-header when the Storm traveled to Lawton in early March, but the Aggies dropped both games when the teams battled in Durant the following weekend.