LAKE CHARLES, LA ? Sam Houston State used the long ball to stay alive in the Southland Conference softball post-season tournament with a 2-1 victory over No. 4 seed Stephen F. Austin and a 4-1 win over No. 3 Texas-San Antonio Friday at Cowgirl Diamond.
The victories put the Bearkat softball team in the semi-finals. Sam Houston will play host team and No. 2 seed McNeese State which lost 1-0 in the winner's bracket Friday night. The pair will battle at 11 a.m. Saturday. The winner will advance to play No. 1 seed and regular season champion Texas State-San Marcos in the finals at 1:30 p.m. The loser of the Bearkat-Cowgirl matchup will be eliminated.
“These are two great wins for us. We've been a team that's been really up and down all year but today we took care of things today in the pitching circle and at the plate” said Sam Houston Coach Bob Brock.
In Sam Houston's second round game Friday morning, junior pitcher Morgan Mikulin crushed a two-run homerun to centerfield knocking the defending tournament champions Stephen F. Austin out of the 2009 Southland Conference Softball Tournament.
Mikulin, a Huntsville, Texas, native, put the Bearkats up 2-1 with her third homerun of the season in the bottom of the sixth inning, and pitcher her 14th complete game of the season in addition to seven strikeouts.
The Lumberjacks only score came in the top of the first inning as junior Kendal Harper drew a walk and stole second for her 18th swipe of the season and junior Briana Bishop then put the Ladyjacks on the board with an RBI single through the left side scoring Harper.
Facing a UTSA squad that had beaten Sam Houston three out of four games this year include a 5-4 come-from-behind thriller in the opening contest of the tournament Thursday, the Bearkats produced more solid hitting with a 4-1 win.
Catcher Casie Everitt scored the go-ahead run in the second inning, hitting a single, moving to second on a wild pitch, being sacrificed to third base on a bunt by Callie Wood, then scoring on another wild pitch.
Sophomore shortstop Hailey Wigington put the Kats ahead 3-1 with an RBI triple in the fourth inning and right fielder Alex Survant added more insurance with a solo home run in the sixth inning.
Sam Houston opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first as Wiginton got on base on an error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mikulin.
Mikulin (14-11) was the winning pitcher in the second game as well, spreading five Roadrunner hits over seven innings and striking out two batters.
Sam Houston upped its season record to 28-25 with the two victories.
