Tigers Fall in Walk-Off Against Houston

Sunday, May 8

Houston, Texas

12 p.m.

University of Memphis

26-30, 7-11

Houston

26-28, 9-9

Memphis

Houston

Photo by: Joe Murphy

May 08, 2016 | Softball

Box Score

Brittany Seale and Brooke Lee each hit solo home runs in losing effort

HOUSTON – A two-run walk-off home run from Courtney Klingler in the bottom of the seventh inning turned a 3-2 Memphis lead into a 4-3 Houston win in the series finale on Sunday afternoon.

With the loss, Memphis has secured the No. 5 seed for the upcoming American Athletic Conference Tournament, and will face off against the same Houston team, who secured the No. 4 seed.

Lindsey Stickrod was 2-for-3 while Lindsay Crowdus was 2-for-4. Brittany Seale was 1-for-2 with a solo home run, while Tyler Johnson, Hannah Harrell, and Brooke Lee were each 1-for-3.

Memphis (26-30, 7-11 American) struck first in the top of the third inning when Jessie Lamb led off the inning with a walk, was advanced to second on a Crowdus single, and was sacrificed to third base by Hannah Harrell. A batter later, Stickrod hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Lamb and giving Memphis a 1-0 lead.

In the top of the fourth inning Seale hit her first home run of the season with a one-out blast over the center field wall, giving the visitors a 2-0 lead.

An inning later Brooke Lee hit a two-out home run over the wall in right-center field, her team-leading seventh of the year, putting Memphis ahead 3-0.

In the bottom half of the sixth inning, Houston's (26-28, 9-9 American) Elise LeBeouf hit a leadoff solo home run, but could not squeeze any more runs across in the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh Brooke Vannoy opened the inning with a solo home run, before Katie St. Pierre drew a walk. St. Pierre was advanced to second on a sacrifice, and to third on a fly-out to center field for the second out. Down to the team's final out of the game, Klingler hit her 12th home run of the season to give the hosts the walk-off win and the series sweep.

Molly Smith fell to 11-15 on the season as she struck out three over six and two-thirds of an inning, giving up four runs and 10 hits.

Maya Thomas was 2-for-2 at the plate, while Rachel Hill was 2-for-3 and LeBeouf 2-for-4. Julana Shrum improved to 8-9 on the year, striking out two and scattering eight hits.