The St. Edward’s softball team received two brilliant pitching performance from two freshmen to stave off elimination twice on day two of the 2012 DII South Central Regional at the ASU Softball Complex. The Hilltoppers defeated #20 Missouri Western State, 2-1, and then knocked off Texas Woman’s, 3-1, to reach the title game on Sunday.
Game 1
The first game of the day was all Emily Mayfield (Austin, Texas/Westwood HS). The freshman pitcher tossed a complete-game, allowing just one run on four hits for her eighth victory of the season.
St. Edward’s (31-20) got the scoring started early as they pushed across a run in the first inning. With one out, Meagen Bailey (Lake Jackson, Texas/Brazoswood HS) and Marissa Thome (Sugar Land, Texas/Lamar Consolidated HS) went back-to-back with singles. They moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Jenny Varteressian (Austin, Texas/Centenary). A passed ball by the Missouri Western catcher allowed Bailey to score the first run of the game.
The Hilltoppers pushed across an insurance run in the fifth. Bailey and Thome set the tone again, as Bailey reached on an error and Thome singled. With two outs, Varteressian smoked a grounder to third that went between the thirdbaseman’s legs, and Bailey scored to make it a 2-0 lead.
St. Edward’s would need that insurance run as the Griffons tallied a run of their own in the sixth inning on a double by Blair Stadler.
Mayfield worked around a one-out walk in the seventh and gave the Hilltoppers the victory. The Hilltoppers only had four hits on the afternoon, but it was just enough to advance to take on Texas Woman’s in another elimination game.
Game 2
In game two, it was the Hilltoppers who fell behind early as Texas Woman’s (37-17) scratched out an unearned run in the second inning. The Pioneers scored their run off of an error on a squeeze play.
St. Edward’s would go in front in the third inning, when they scored two runs. The first run came on a perfectly place squeeze bunt by Kendall Lucas (Round Rock, Texas/Hutto HS). The second came off of a pinch-hit single by Marisa Bogart (Kempner, Texas/Lampasas HS).
From there, Sarah Debrow (Willis, Texas/Willis HS) took over. The freshman tossed a complete-game, allowing just one unearned run and allowing only three hits for her 13th victory of the season.
The Hilltoppers got an insurance run in the seventh when Thome led off with a double to the gap in right field. Lucas would drive her in on a single to center field that landed in between three Pioneer defenders.
St. Edward’s will advance to the championship game versus host Angelo State. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. at the ASU Softball Complex in San Angelo, Texas. The Hilltoppers will need to beat the RamBelles twice to win the regional. Live Stats will be available on the Angelo State Website.