| Freshman Amber Anderson slugged a three-run homer in the sixth, but it was not enough on Thursday night. |
LAKE CHARLES, La. ? Freshman Amber Anderson slugged a three-run home run, but McNeese State scored an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth and held on for a 4-3 victory over UTSA in the Southland Conference Tournament on Thursday evening at Cowgirl Diamond.
With the win, the Cowgirls improved to 30-26 on the year and advance to face Texas State in the winner’s bracket at 4 p.m. Friday. The Roadrunners fell to 28-28 overall and now will face UT Arlington in an elimination game at 1:30 p.m. Friday. The winner of that game will play either Stephen F. Austin or Sam Houston State at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Right-hander Bethany Stefinsky held UTSA without a hit through 5.1 innings, but junior Kelly Cato broke up the no-hit bid with a clean ground-ball single through the left side of the infield with one out in the top of the sixth. Trailing, 3-0, junior Rudi Cantu sent the next pitch into short left field for a second hit to bring the tying run to the plate. After an infield fly, Anderson stepped to the plate and sent an 0-1 pitch high over the right field wall to knot the score at 3-3. It was the sixth home run of the season for the Alvin native, tying her with senior Leanne Risberg and sophomore Kristin Kappler for the team lead.
McNeese State responded in the bottom of the frame. Claire Terracina drew a one-out walk and moved all the way to third on a throwing error on the force attempt at second base off the bat of Lindsey Langner, who advanced to second on the play. Holly Long then grounded a ball to the shortstop that was bobbled, allowing the go-ahead run to score from third uncontested.
The game shaped into a pitcher’s duel early. After two scoreless frames, the Cowgirls pushed across a pair of runs in the third on RBI-singles by Whitney Corbello and Long.
McNeese tacked on another run in the fourth. With runners at the corners and one out, Liz Morvant executed the squeeze bunt to perfection to make it 3-0.
Stefinsky fanned 10 batters and allowed three runs on three hits in running her record to 20-14.
Corbello and Morvant had two hits apiece for the Cowgirls, while Long had two RBIs.