Box Score
ASC Tournament Photo Gallery
Farmers Branch, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor softball team never recovered from U.T.-Tyler's five-run third inning outburst as the Cru dropped a 9-3 decision to the Patriots in the American Southwest Conference Tournament Semifinals Friday night in Farmers Branch. UMHB finishes 29-16 with the loss. U.T.-Tyler improves to 41-3 on the year with the victory and advances to Saturday's Championship Game against East Texas Baptist University.
Heather Abshire's two-run home run gave U.T.-Tyler a first inning lead.
Hannah Parker cut it to 2-1 with an RBI double in the bottom of the second. The Patriots then broke the game open with five two-out runs in the top of the third. Kelsie Batten's three-run double was the biggest hit in that frame. The Cru closed the gap to 7-2 on
Halle Sabo's RBI groundout in the bottom of that inning, but U.T.-Tyler answered with a run in the top of the fourth.
Heather Smith singled home a run for UMHB in the fifth, but the Patriots answered that run with one more in the sixth to close out the scoring.
Rebekah Ragsdale took the loss in the circle for UMHB to drop to 16-6 on the year. Tori Gomez had two of the Cru's seven hits in the game. Batten tossed a complete-game, seven-hitter to raise her record to 20-1 for the Patriots. Joey Cronin and Brittney Batten had two hits apiece for U.T.-Tyler.
UMHB will now have to hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships. If the Cru does not receive a bid, the loss closes out the careers of UMHB seniors
Caitlin Bollier,
Ariel Kemmerer and
Brittany Moreno.
