Sam Houston fares well in first NCAA Division I tournament
5/18/2007 1:00:00 AM | Softball
Texas A&M 9, Sam Houston 5
Sam Houston 2, Louisiana-Lafayette 1
Texas A&M 11, Sam Houston 0
Saturday Games
From The Huntsville Item
By Cody Stark, Assistant Sports Editor
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Bearkats' magical season came to an end Saturday afternoon but not before Sam Houston State's young squad added another chapter to the history books at the NCAA regional tournament.
Sophomore catcher Casey Everitt smacked a solo home run and scored the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth to give pitcher Brandi Crnkovic all the support she needed in a 2-1 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette in an elimination game at the College Station Regional on Saturday afternoon at the Aggie Softball Complex.
Sam Houston State was making its first-ever appearance in the Division I tournament, and the win over the Ragin' Cajuns made it a successful trip despite an 11-0 loss to No. 8 Texas A&M to end the postseason run in the nightcap.
“Louisiana-Lafayette was coming off a loss, and I thought that after watching them we could match up a little bit with them and I could motivate (my team),” SHSU head coach Bob Brock said. “I seem to be able to motivate this team quite a bit at times, so I was really excited to see what we did against Louisiana-Lafayette. We just hung in and hung in. It was a complete team effort.
“We are real excited about that because that is a learning process for us, and we found out at least today, at least we can hang with somebody who is ranked in the top 25.”
A day after surrendering eight runs in a 9-5 setback against the Aggies, Crnkovic (20-12) was back in the masterful form she flashed in the circle on the way to being named the Southland Conference Tournament's most valuable player last weekend.
The sophomore from Caldwell scattered four hits in eight innings to go along with five strikeouts to earn the victory over the Ragin' Cajuns, a team that spent much of the '07 season in the top 25. Backed by a strong defensive effort from her teammates, Crnkovic only made one mistake, giving up a solo homer to third baseman Melissa Verde in the top of the second.
“Against A&M in the first game, I was really nervous. Excited, but nervous,” Crnkovic said. “Today, I just tried to refocus and concentrate on what I needed to do.”
Louisiana-Lafayette pitcher Brittany Cuevas was just as dominating, holding the Kats to one hit through the first three innings. But Everitt, who doubled in her first plate appearance, launched the second pitch of the fourth inning over the wall in left field to tie the game at 1.
The game remained locked until the bottom of the eighth, before Everitt got a rally started when she reached on a throwing error by the shortstop. Senior Stephanie Mosley followed with a shallow floater to center that the second baseman couldn't come up with for a double.
With a chance to win the game, Brock waved a racing Everitt around third. The relay throw was on time, but Everitt slipped past the catcher's tag and dove back to the plate to win it.
“I think we were just gunning for them because we just wanted to win,” said Everitt, who went 3-for-4 in the victory. “I think we were all just trying to hit. Finally, I went up there to the plate and relaxed instead of trying so hard and (the home run) worked out. Then at the plate, I saw the girl trying to tag me and I just ran around her. It was exciting, and a good team effort.”
Junior shortstop Tanya Hooser and sophomore third baseman Sarah Parich also hit safely in the win.
The Bearkats had to turn right around and face Texas A&M on Saturday evening. The Aggies were pounded by Houston 8-1 in Saturday's first game, but with their win over SHSU, A&M earned a rematch with UH today at noon. The Aggies must beat the Cougars twice to advance to the super regionals.
On Friday in the tournament opener, SHSU jumped on the Aggies with five runs in the first inning, only to fall 9-5.
Freshman hurler Morgan Mikulin, who was making her first start in the tournament, kept the Bearkats in it Saturday by allowing three runs in the first four innings, but SHSU once again was baffled by Aggies ace Amanda Scarborough.
Scarborough came in and shut down SHSU on Friday. The junior from Magnolia picked up where she left off Saturday. She struck out nine of the first 11 hitters she faced and took a no-hit bid into the sixth before sophomore left fielder Kendra Spivey lead off with a single up the middle.
Scarborough (23-8) only allowed two other base runners; freshman Amanda Lindsey was hit by a pitch and Parich reached on a fielding error in the fourth.
The Aggies opened up the game with three runs in the fifth and five in the sixth to seal the victory.
Mikulin (17-13) gave up 11 runs on 14 hits in 5 1/3 innings to pick up the loss.
A year after failing to make their own conference tournament, the Bearkats' turnaround was remarkable, and they did it with a young team. Now with an NCAA Tournament appearance, and more importantly a win on the national stage, SHSU can look forward to an even brighter future.
“In my years coaching, I never had a year like we had last year. We only won 18 games,” Brock said. “So this is a pretty major turnaround, and we have eight freshmen that can flat out play. In a combination with some of the sophomores that had to suffer through last year, hopefully we will be more mature and be in the position to go a little further next year.”
Friday Game
From The Huntsville Item
By Cody Stark, Assistant Sports Editor
COLLEGE STATION ? The Bearkats didn't look like a rookie ballclub making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament on Friday at the Aggie Softball Complex.
Instead, Sam Houston State looked like a group of seasoned veterans, erupting for five runs in the top of the first inning to jump out in front of fourth-seeded Texas A&M. But the Aggies showed why they have been one of the top-ranked teams in the country for most of the year, storming back for a 9-5 victory in the opening round of the College Station Regional.
The Bearkats (37-25) now face Louisiana-Lafayette, which lost to Houston 4-3 in Friday's opener, in an elimination game today at 2:30 p.m.
“I really felt like we really have a good team and that we really deserved the opportunity to be here,” SHSU head coach Bob Brock said. “And dog gone it, we got out there and fought pretty hard today. I feel really good about that.”
The Bearkats (37-25) came out aggressively and jumped on pitches early in the count to crank out five hits off A&M starter Megan Gibson in the first to grab a quick 5-0 lead.
Freshman first baseman Amy Brown wasted no time getting her feet wet in the tournament, blasting the second pitch she saw to the gap in left-center for a leadoff double. Sophomore catcher Casey Everitt dropped down a sacrifice bunt, and Gibson elected to try to throw out Brown at third only to see both runners reach safely.
Senior Stephanie Mosley moved Everitt to second on a grounder to the pitcher. With a pair of runners in scoring position, junior designated player Mandy Collier ripped a double down the third baseline for the first two runs of the game.
After junior Tanya Hooser reached on a one-out single, second baseman Janaye Richardson struck out swinging on a wild pitch that skipped to the backstop. Pinch runner Megan Beard scored on the play and Richardson was safe at first to keep the inning alive.
Sophomore Sarah Parich followed with another single to load the bases. Freshman Amanda Lindsey then dropped a lazy fly ball into left to plate Hooser before Brown walked to force in the final run.
“That's been our game plan all year, to get our hitting done early and be done with it,” Collier said. “We have been really successful with swinging at the first pitch or the first strike. That's what we came in to do and we jumped on them early. We had a lot of success in the first inning.”
Aggie head coach Jo Evans brought in Big 12 co-pitcher of the year Amanda Scarborough in the second to help slow down the SHSU attack. The former Magnolia High School standout did a solid job of mixing up her pitches, allowing only one hit over the final six innings (a single by Lauren Burns in the second) to earn the win.
“It worked out well because I was going to throw a bullpen session before the game anyway,” Scarborough said of her relief appearance. “I came out of the game and quickly warmed up. I figured I was going to go in there and had a great frame of mind that they weren't going to get any more runs and we were going to win this game.”
The Aggies (41-10) mounted a comeback in the bottom of the second when Macie Morrow blasted an RBI triple with one out off SHSU starter Brandi Crnkovic. After a groundout, the Bearkats looked like they were going to get out of the inning without giving up any more runs when Parich snagged a high chopper out of the sky and quickly threw to first.
But Brown couldn't make a play. She fired home attempting to gun down a runner trying to score but Everitt couldn't secure the ball. A&M added another run to cut the lead to 5-3.
The Aggies added five more runs in the fourth highlighted by a three-run home run by freshman Alex Reynolds on a 1-2 offering from Crnkovic. The most valuable player of the Southland Conference Tournament last week, Crnkovic (19-12) gave up eight runs (two earned) on eight hits and four walks in 3 2/3 innings. Freshman Morgan Mikulin tossed the final 2 1/3 innings and gave up two hits and one run.
“First of all, I thought Sam Houston obviously came out prepared and really did a great job in the first inning,” Evans said. “I thought they were really aggressive at the plate and hit a lot of first pitches to get Gibson on her heals. They won that first inning, but fortunately for us we won the innings afterwards and won the game.”
The Bearkats now face a do-or-die situation against the Ragin' Cajuns today with the winner set to face the loser between A&M and Houston at 5:30 p.m.
SHSU has been in this scenario before. After rolling through the first two rounds at the Southland Conference Tournament last week, the Bearkats lost to Texas State 8-0 before bouncing back with a 1-0 victory in a winner-take-all final.
“As everybody knows we are a really scrappy team. We don't have the size everybody else has,” Collier said. “But we have the confidence, the drive. We have the dedication that we put in every single day. We have wonderful coaches driving us in the right direction.
“We have the focus to do it, and as people saw in the conference tournament, we got run-ruled in the first game and then came back and beat them. We can do it and have done it all year. We are really good at coming back and are confident we can do it. Everybody will see.”
