Chickasha, OK
May 5, 2019 | Blake Cochran
The Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) softball ended the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament losing to the #1 team in the nation in the bottom of 7th inning from a two-run home run, 1-2. The Lady Lions lost game one to Texas Wesleyan 0-3, won game two against Southwestern Christian 2-0 and sat at a record 1-1 in pool play after day one. A win against the 51-0 USAO Drovers would have kept their season alive before dropping the game that set USAO up to face Oklahoma City University in the SAC championship. OCU upset the Lady Drovers in a 1-0 victory for an automatic bid in the NAIA National Softball Tournament .
Game one against the Lady Rams the game was held scoreless until the top of the 4th when TWU brought in two runs from hitting two doubles while leaving one runner on base. The Lady Lions were unable to regain any runs in the bottom of the 4th. TWU back up to bat in the top of the 5th and the Lady Rams scored the last run of the game when Savannah Brixey hit a leadoff triple to deep left field. Kylie Summers hit a sacrifice fly to left that would bring Brixey home. Cheyenne Fults, Casey Waterman, Rosie Guadarrama, Brittany Livingston, and Destinee Vindiola each had singles during the first game of the SAC tournament but remained scoreless. Waterman pitched a complete game allowing six hits, three earned runs and striking out three batters.
Their second game of the night remained scoreless for a majority of the game as well. The Lady Lions struck first in the bottom of the fifth when Waterman singled to left-center that scored Rhian Journey after she reached third from stealing two bases. The next inning SAGU scored their second run of the game when Morgan Valentino had an RBI single to shallow center, Vindiola crosses home plate to end the 6th inning with a 2-0 score. Waterman finished the last three batters of the game only allowing one hit in the seven innings while striking out four of the 23 batters she faced.
The Lady Lions finished 1-1 on day one before their last pool play game against USAO. Only two hits were allowed between both pitchers until the top of the 5th when SAGU scored one run from a Fults single that would score Journey for her second run of the weekend. Journey reached first from a single that got past the short shop. The 1-0 score would remain until the bottom of the 7th inning; Kristen Prieto started the Lady Drovers off with a single to deep left. Destinie Lookout popped out to first for the first out of the bottom of the seventh with one on. Next batter, Randad Hatter hit a walk-off two-run home run that would advance USAO to the SAC championship game on Sunday, May 5th.
The Lady Lions qualify for the NCCAA tournament after obtaining above a .500 record going 27-26 overall and 21-15 in conference play. Game one of the NCCAA tournament will be home against Ecclesia College on May 7th at 12 pm.
Southwestern Assemblies of God University is a private, Christian university located 30 minutes south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Waxahachie, Texas. The university was established in 1927, and now offers more than 70 associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees on campus or online. More information is available at ww w.sagu.edu
