Stephen F. Austin
McNeese State
SFA Upends McNeese State in Extra Innings
2/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
HOUSTON, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin softball team rallied from three runs down to beat Southland Conference favorite McNeese State in extra innings on the second day of the Houston Hilton Plaza Invitational Saturday afternoon at Cougar Softball Stadium. The Ladyjacks were blanked 3-0 by the University of Northern Iowa in their second game of the day.
Trailing 5-2 to McNeese State on Saturday morning, SFA (3-6) scored four runs in the top half of the seventh inning to go ahead 6-5. Brittany Lewis reached on an infield single to lead off the inning and was standing on third after Shalie Day and Taylor Fraccastoro both drew walks to load the bases.
Down to their last out with three aboard, the Ladyjacks got a pair of timely two-run hits off the bats of freshman Annie Mehringer and sophomore Taylor LeFlore. Mehringer first lined a single into center to plate Lewis and Day while LeFlore doubled home Fraccastoro and Mehringer to make it 6-5.
The Cowgirls (6-3) tied the game at 6-6 with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings.
In the eighth, SFA exercised great patience at the plate to push across what would eventually be the winning run. After LeFlore was placed on second to start the inning, the Ladyjacks drew three consecutive walks to send her home for a 7-6 lead. Lewis, Alisa Hamilton and Heather Hollingsworth all earned free passes while Hollingsworth was credited with the bases loaded RBI.
Junior Hannah Welch led the Ladyjack defense from inside the circle in the bottom half of the eighth, stranding a Cowgirl on third to finish off the come-from-behind victory. Welch (1-0) pitched all eight innings for SFA, earning her first win of the season.
Lewis led the Ladyjacks at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI on the day. Hollingsworth and Mehringer also had multi-hit performances in game one with Mehringer leading the way with three RBI.
Katelyn Standley and Mehringer traded back-to-back doubles to manufacture SFA's first run of the game in the second inning. Hamilton singled and scored on a Lewis RBI double in the fifth inning to help the Ladyjacks jump out to a 2-0 lead.
The Cowgirls would score four in the fifth and one in the sixth inning to take a 5-2 advantage into the eventful seventh frame.
In game two, the Ladyjack offense was silence by UNI pitcher Chelsea Ross in a 3-0 defeat. Day led SFA with two hits and freshman Makayla Sikes had another nice outing in the circle. Sikes claimed a quality start with three allowed runs in seven innings of work. She struck out five on the afternoon.
The Ladyjacks will play their final game of the three-day tournament on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. against host Houston. Freshman Callee Guffey (1-2, 5.40 ERA) is the tentative starter for SFA.
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