Softball Season Comes To An End At The American Championship

Friday, May 12

Greenville, N.C.

12 PM

University of Memphis

29-27

Tulsa

38-15

Memphis

Tulsa

Photo by: Ben Solomon

Softball Season Comes To An End At The American Championship

May 12, 2017 | Softball

Box Score

Tigers unable to overcome early scoring by Tulsa, end season 29-27 overall

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Early scoring by the University of Tulsa proved to be too much to overcome as the University of Memphis softball team saw its 2017 season come to an end Friday afternoon in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Softball Championship. Tulsa defeated Memphis by a score of 6-0 to end the Tigers season at 29-27 overall.

Tulsa scored three runs in the first and three more in the second to take an early 6-0 lead over the Tigers. Only four of those runs were earned as the Golden Hurricane took advantage of Memphis miscues.

Erin Parker registered the first Memphis hit in the top of the third, but was stranded alongside Hannah Harrell before the Tigers could get a tally on the board. The Tigers scattered two more hits throughout the contest, but were unable to move the runners around.

In relief, Molly Smith held Tulsa scoreless from the third inning on. She finished the day with a pair of strikeouts and a pair of walks.

Notables

The 29 wins this season is the most at Memphis under the direction of Natalie Poole.
The win yesterday in the American Athletic Conference Championship was the first tournament win for Memphis as a member of the AAC. It was also the first win in the conference tournament since 2010.
Memphis finished the season against Tulsa with a 1-3 record. The Tigers defeated every school in the league at least once.
Erin Parker, Lindsey Stickrod, and Regan Hadley recorded hits for Memphis on Friday.
For the season, Co-AAC Player of the Year Lindsay Crowdus became the first player in school history to end the year with a batting average over .400. She also is the only player to record over 80 hits in a season.

Scoring

Bottom 1 – A pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out for Tulsa. A double to left center scored two and the third run of the inning scored on the same play, an error in the outfield. (3 runs, 3 hits, 1 error, 1 left on base)
Bottom 2 – A double down the left field line by Hughes led off the inning for Tulsa. She and Estocado scored on a pair of throwing errors by Memphis, which resulted in Hollingsworth, the batter at the time, to reach third. Hollingsworth scored on a sacrifice fly. (3 runs, 3 hits, 2 errors, 1 left on base)

Quotable – Natalie Poole, Head Coach
"I am definitely proud of the season we had. We always aspire to do better than we have ever done. Unfortunately, only 64 teams move forward after this weekend and we won't be one of those. I thought that we did a better job to try and get to that place this year. I think we had many great performances and then moments this year where we have the opportunity to grow."

"I'm really going to miss our seniors as they were impactful to our program. In the same breath, we look forward to come new girls coming into our program to see what they are going to do for us. I look forward to growth in our returners and for new players to step up as we move forward into the coming year. I am proud to be a Tiger and I am proud of the girls' work and commitment to this program."