Stephen F. Austin
Sam Houston
Ladyjacks Knock Off Sam
2/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 25, 2009
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Briana Bishop hit a three-run homer in the top of the 10th inning that proved to be the game-winner in Stephen F. Austin's 5-2 victory at Sam Houston State Wednesday night. The win snapped a five-game losing streak for the Ladyjacks, who improve to 4-11 on the season and 1-2 in Southland Conference play.
Bishop was 2-for-5 in the game, and the three RBI give her eight for the season, moving the junior third baseman into a tie for the team lead. All five of SFA's runs in Wednesday's game came on long balls, as freshman Kayla Gutowski blasted a two-run homer in the third inning.
Sophomore Monika Covington (3-6) pitched all 10 innings for SFA and recorded a season-best 13 strikeouts. She scattered 10 hits and a pair of walks and was charged with just one earned run.
Sam Houston (8-8, 2-1 SLC) got a leadoff double in the bottom of the first and went on to stake itself to a 2-0 lead with three more hits and an SFA error in the inning.
The Ladyjacks answered with an identical line in the top of the third. Benet Higgs got a one-out single then took second base on an error. She moved to third when Kendal Harper singled. The Bearkats recorded the second out of the inning when Harper was called out for leaving the bag early, but the next batter, Gutowski, lifted a home run to center to tie the score. It was her second of the season. Bishop followed with a base knock, but Sam Houston got out of the inning on a fly ball.
SFA got two runners on in the fourth, with a one-out walk from Kim Daley and a Jessica Arana single up the middle, but the Bearkats stranded both runners with a fielder's choice off the bat of Amber Price, followed by a line-drive out to right field by Higgs.
After SFA went scoreless in the fifth and sixth, Price led off the seventh with a double to left-center. Two at-bats later, Harper moved her to third with a bunt single, but Sam Houston turned a double play to get out of the jam with the score still tied.
The Bearkats put two runners on with two out in the bottom half, but Covington escaped the inning with a fly ball.
Neither team scratched in the eighth or ninth, setting up Bishop's 10th-inning heroics. Higgs began the inning on second base, and Gutowski drew a one-out walk to bring Bishop to bat. She delivered with her first home run of the season.
Covington retired the Bearkats in order in the bottom half of the inning to give her team the win.
Harper joined Bishop with a pair of hits, and Higgs, Gutowski, Daley, Arana and Price each posted one of the Ladyjacks' nine base knocks.
SFA will return to action this weekend, when the Ladyjacks travel to Natchitoches, La., to take on Northwestern State. The three-game series will start with a double-header Saturday. Game 1 is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
-- SFA --
