No. 5 UTA walks off vs. No. 4 South Alabama
Troy, Ala. – No. 5 seed UTA defeated No. 4 seed South Alabama on a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning to advance to the elimination bracket final of the 2017 Sun Belt Softball Championship.
UTA (32-25) advances to its first-ever semifinal in its Sun Belt softball tournament history and will face No. 2 seed Texas State for a spot in the championship game against No. 1 Louisiana. No. 4 South Alabama (35-20) is eliminated from the tournament.
The Mavericks and Jaguars delivered a pitcher’s duel with sparkling defensive plays as the teams carried a 1-1 tie throughout much of the contest. UTA pieced together a rally in the last at bat of the game, which ended with Aileen Garcia sending a sacrifice fly to center that scored Krista Rude and won the game in walk-off fashion for the Mavericks. Rude singled with one out, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error to start the rally.
The Mavs entered the bottom of the fifth inning down one after South Alabama claimed the lead in its first at bat when Abby Krzywiecki singled to left to score Kristian Foster from second.
UTA tied the game when Laura Curry led off with a triple and Sandra Mendoza scored her on a double to right center.
South Alabama third baseman Savanna Mayo made the defensive play of the tournament as she charged an attempted squeeze play and barely threw out Mendoza as she raced towards the plate from third in the bottom of the fifth.
UTA 2, South Alabama 1 (May 12, 2017 at Troy, Ala.)
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South Alabama....... 100 000 0 - 1 4 2 (35-20)
UTA................. 000 010 1 - 2 5 0 (32-25)
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Pitchers: South Alabama - Vicknair, Destin; Brown, Devin(5) and Smith, Aly. UTA - Sam Montes;
Mariah Denson(3); Sam Clakley(5) and Kacey Everett.
Win-Sam Clakley(26-13) Loss-Brown, Devin(19-7) T-1:54 A-421
Weather: Cloudy
D. Vicknair faced 2 batters in the 5th.