Softball falls to South Alabama in SBC Championship tournament

The FIU softball team dropped a 9-1 decision to South Alabama in six innings Friday morning, May 11, in the 2012 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship at FAU Stadium. With the loss, the Panthers fall to 28-26 on the year and move on to an elimination game against North Texas. First pitch is tentatively scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Photo courtesy FIUSports.com

Following a three-and-a-half hour weather delay on Thursday, South Alabama put two runners on in the bottom of the first on back-to-back walks before the Jaguars connected for a double to drive in a score and take a 1-0 lead. A two-RBI triple ensued with South Alabama taking a 3-0 lead into the second inning.

Freshman Shelby Graves posted FIU’s first hit of the contest with a two-out single up the middle in the top of the second, but she was left stranded on a groundout to first. South Alabama added to its lead in the bottom of the second stanza, scoring two runs on three hits to gain a 5-0 lead.

In the top of the third, sophomore Megan Horne reached first on an error and a second Jaguar error allowed sophomore Erika Arcuri to reach safely. South Alabama would then bounce back with a double play to put two outs on the board and a strikeout left Arcuri stranded at second.

Senior Ashley McClain capitalized on a third Jaguar error to lead off the top of the fourth and a putout at first sent her to second base. With two outs on the board, an infield single from Graves sent McClain across the plate to put FIU on the board at 5-1, and junior Alex Casals followed up with a single to right field, but a groundout to the pitcher ended the half-inning for the Panthers.

Junior Kayla Burri connected for FIU’s fourth hit of the game with a two-out single up the middle in the top of the fifth, however, the Jaguars came through with a third out once again to bring the half-inning to a close.

A second weather delay followed, ultimately resulting in a suspension until Friday morning. The contest resumed at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, as South Alabama homered on the first pitch to extend the Jaguars’ lead to 6-1. A two-run homer followed to make it 8-1 and a single through the right side in the bottom of the sixth ended the game, giving South Alabama 9-1 win.

Graves led the FIU offense with two hits and one RBI while McClain scored the Panthers’ lone run of the contest. Senior Jenn Gniadek took the loss, falling to 8-11 on the season, as she gave up four hits and five earned runs in 1.1 innings of work. Sophomore Mariah Dawson pitched 4.0 innings of relief, striking out four batters and allowing four earned runs on six hits.

The SBC will use the same format as last year for the tournament which emulates the College World Series (CWS) bracket. The loser of games seven and eight will switch sides of the bracket to play through the loser’s bracket. The SBC tournament differs from the CWS bracket in that the SBC championship game is single elimination whereas the CWS championship round is the best two-out-of-three.

SBC Championship Coverage: 
Fans can catch all the action from the 2012 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship live from FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Fla., via SBC Extra. Visit www.SunBeltSports.org and fill out the required registration information for live streaming of each game directly to your computer. SBC Extra is a broadband video channel that is the ultimate place for fans of Sun Belt member schools on the web. SBC Extra is powered by SunBeltSports.org, the official web site of the Sun Belt Conference. Live stats and complete championship results will be available via www.SunBeltSports.org and fans can follow @FIUSoftball on Twitter for in-game updates.