MOBILE, Ala. – Georgia State had left runners on base in every inning, and the Panthers had watched UT Arlington score in three different frames to take a 3-0 lead with only two innings left.
But in the sixth inning, momentum definitely changed dugouts in Thursday’s final game of the Sun Belt Conference Softball Championships.
Georgia State scored five runs on three hits, while taking advantage of three UTA errors, and used that explosion to take a 5-3 win over the Mavericks in an elimination game.
“We just finally got some hits,” said Panther coach Angie Nicholson, whose team will face Troy Friday at 4 p.m. in another elimination contest. “We’d had our chances early in the game, we just didn’t get the timely hits, and we also got some heads-up base running. That’s something we pride ourselves in, so it was really good to take some opportunities and some advantages on their mistakes.”
The seventh-seeded Panthers (21-32), who had to play a Tuesday play-in game to reach the double-elimination round, trailed 3-0 before Skylar Chavez reached base on a wild pitch to start the sixth inning after Maverick relief pitcher Jessica Adams struck her out. Carolyn Deadly followed with her second hit of the game and Daisy Hess doubled to right field to plate Chavez and make it 3-1.
UTA starter Morgan Max returned, but Jackie Gonzalez singled home Deady to make it a one-run game. Gabby Benson then reached on an error that allowed Hess to score with the tying run. Two more UTA errors in the inning pushed across Gonzales and Benson with what became the winning runs.
“We had a tough sixth inning,” said UTA coach Peejay Brun, whose team finished its season 22-27. “It was one of those games, things are rolling, and you have a moment when things kind of fall apart a little bit, making too many errors. But we didn’t give up, we’re still putting people on the bases in the seventh inning.”
UTA had the tying runs on base in the seventh before Georgia State pitcher Emily Buck got a ground ball out and a strikeout to end the threat and send the Panthers to Friday’s game. Buck (9-7) scattered seven hits and struck out four after allowing single runs in the second, third and fifth innings.
“She kept us in the game,” Nicholson said. “Emily Buck is our go-to. This is it for her, this is her last hurrah, and you can tell she wants it more than anything.”
UTA took a 1-0 lead in the second on Meagan Smith’s leadoff double and Jessica Carreon’s two-out RBI single. Smith also singled home Morgan Rios in the third inning, before she was intentionally walked in her final two plate appearances.
“Hats off to her,” Nicholson said of Smith. “She’s very good and that’s why we intentionally walked her the next few times. She’s just tough.”
The Mavericks made it 3-0 on two hits and two walks in the fifth, with Kimber Cortemelia drawing a bases-loaded walk, before Georgia State’s rally in the sixth.
Max (4-3) did not allow an earned run and scattered five hits, striking out seven in picking up the tough loss after Adams came on to pitch to three batters in the sixth.
“Morgan Max did a fantastic job for us on the mound,” Brun said. “She’s come a long way from where she started this year. We were debating that switch on the mound, and it just seemed like Georgia State was ready to face Jess (Adams) once we did put her in. In hindsight, maybe we should have gone with Max a little longer, but that’s easier said at the end of the game rather than during the game.”