MONROE, La. — The Sam Houston softball team closed out its third and final day at the Best On The Bayou Tournament on Sunday, taking down Syracuse before falling to the host ULM Warhawks in the tournament finale at the ULM Softball Complex.
The 3-2 win over the Orange secured a winning weekend for the Bearkats (6-8) and had its win streak up to three in a row before ULM handed them a 5-1 defeat to close out the weekend.
Sam Houston will now head to No. 16 Texas A&M for a midweek game on Tuesday before hosting Abilene Christian for three games this weekend.
Sam Houston 3, Syracuse 2
The Bearkats built up a 3-0 lead with early offense and Mika Vento turned in her best outing of the young season to lead the Bearkats to the morning victory.
The right-hander struck out five and walked just one in 6.0 innings for the win before Daryn Grams closed it out with a scoreless seventh for her first save. Vento allowed four hits, but two were solo homers by Syracuse's Taylor Posner, accounting for both Orange runs.
Ellie Grill got the Kats off to a hot start with a triple on the first pitch of the game, sparking a 3-for-4 day from the top of the lineup. She came in to score the first run on a grounder from Brodie Quinlan and scored again in the third as the lead score on a 2-run double by Elia Hebel that upped the advantage to 3-0.
ULM 5, Sam Houston 1
Grill stayed hot with another 2-hit game in the tournament finale, but a 3-run third inning and a solid relief appearance by the Warhawks' Maddie Nichols was to much for the Bearkats to overcome.
The teams traded runs in the first and second frames with Sam Houston's Haileigh Carter knotting things with an RBI single in the top of the second. However, an error and three base hits did the Kats in in the third, and from there, ULM's Nichols did the rest.
The Warhawk reliever entered in the second inning and tossed the final 5.1 frames, punching out six, to run her record to 5-2 for the year. Amy Abke got the start for the Kats and allowed just one run in 1.1 frames, but it was Grams who was saddled with the loss after allowing four runs in 3.2 innings of relief.
