No. 2 South Alabama Advances to Sun Belt Championship Game on Farish Beard’s One Hitter
SAN MARCOS, TEXAS – Senior pitcher Farish Beard pitched a one hitter to lead No. 2 South Alabama to a 3-1 victory over No. 5 Georgia State. The victory clinched a place in the 2015 Sun Belt Softball Championship game where South Alabama will play UL Lafayette at 1 p.m. CT at Bobcat Softball Stadium.
Beard threw a no-hitter through the first five innings, but it was broken up in the top of the sixth inning by an Ivie Drake blooper into right field. The Panthers scored their lone run of the game that inning as Taylor Anderson led off the frame with a hit by pitch. Ashley Christy followed by reaching on a fielding error before Drake’s bloop single loaded the bases. Beard struck out the next batter before Lauren Coleman hit a towering fly ball to the warning track. It was caught by right fielder Blair Johnson, but it was deep enough to score Anderson to make the score 3-1.
South Alabama opened the scoring in the bottom of the first as Chloe Rathburn singled to left field to score Emily Messer. Messer reached on an infield single and moved to second on a Stephanie Pilkington single before moving to third on a wild pitch.
The Jaguaras added a run in the fourth inning, but it should have been more as Emily Messer tripled to centerfield with two runners on base. Amanda Minahan singled to start the inning and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Alyssa Linn walked to bring Messer to the plate with two outs. Messer’s triple scored Minahan, but Linn tripped rounding third and was tagged out attempting to crawl to home plate.
The Jaguars added an insurance run in the fifth inning when Kaitlyn Griffith doubled down the left field line to score Pilkington. Pilkington had reached with a one out single to centerfield.
Beard pitched a complete game and only surrendered one hit, one unearnend run, and four walks while striking out four. Beard pushed her record to 11-4 while Georgia State's Katie Worley fell to 14-10. Worley pitched six innings after going six innings earlier in the day against UL Monroe. In this game, Worley surrendered 10 hits and three runs while striking out three.
Messer finished the game 2 for 4 with a run and a RBI. Pilkington also recorded two hits with a run scored. Rathburn and Griffith each went 1 for 3 with a RBI.
No. 2 South Alabama will advance to the Sun Belt Championship game where they will play No. 1 UL Lafayette. The Ragin’ Cajuns booked their trip to the finals with a 6-3 victory over the Jaguars earlier on Friday. UL Lafayette and South Alabama meet for the seventh time overall in the Sun Belt Championship. The programs have split the previous six meetings, the Ragin’ Cajuns having won the last two. Saturday’s matchup marks the third Sun Belt Tournament championship game meeting between the Cajuns and South Alabama. The two programs met for the title in 2012 in Boca Raton, Fla. (South Alabama won 3-1) and 2014 in Lafayette (UL Lafayette won 4-1).
The 2015 Sun Belt Softball Championship will be broadcast live on ESPN3 at 1 p.m. CT.