The Southern Arkansas University softball team will be playing Saturday for the championship of the NCAA Division II Central Region 2 Tournament in Magnolia. SAU faces Minnesota State-Mankato at 1:00 p.m. Saturday at the Southern Arkansas University softball complex. The Lady Muleriders do no have any losses in the double-elimination tournament, so they need just one win over the Mavericks to win the sub-regional tournament. Minnesota State would need to beat SAU twice to claim the championship.
(by Darian Harris, SAU) The Lady Muleriders used the long ball Friday in their contest against #15 Augustana that allowed SAU to advance to Championship Saturday after a 4-1 win over the Vikings on Friday afternoon.
TEAM RECORDS
(#8) Southern Arkansas Lady Muleriders (54-9)
(#15) Augustana Vikings (42-14)
PITCHING DECISIONS – GAME 1
W – Brooke Ford-Nelson (12-4)
L – Ashley Mickschl (20-7)
S – None
HIGHLIGHTS & HAPPENINGS
All of the runs from both teams in the contest came via home runs as the Vikings took the first lead in the top of the third inning, 1-0, with a solo homer to left field from the pitcher, Ashley Mickschl.
SAU was hitless until the fourth inning, and scoreless until the fifth when Brooke Goad went big-fly to deep right-center field and pulled the Lady Muleriders ahead 3-1.
Brooke Ford-Nelson came on in relief in the circle for Southern Arkansas in the fifth inning and was very efficient as the junior did not allow any hits or any runs through three innings of work.
Marina Duran hit a solo shot out to straight-away center field in the bottom of the sixth to cushion SAU’s lead out to its eventual, 4-1.
AT THE PLATE
Goad led the offense for SAU with 3 RBIs on a homerun
Duran collected the other RBI for SAU on a home run and also had a single
Faith Otts and Sarah Pitre each collected one hit apiece
