The Murray State softball team had its inaugural season
come to an end in its second game of the 2010 Ohio Valley Conference Softball
Championship. The Racers (22-29, 11-11
OVC) fell to Tennessee Tech, 6-3, at Bettye Giles Field in Martin, Tenn.
"I like how we played throughout the tournament. We competed in both games and we made some
mistakes, but compete well both days," said head coach Jay Pyron. "The team knows that we have the quality of
team to still be competing in the tournament and that is a lesson that we need
to hold on to for next year."
MSU tallied nine hits in the game, with freshman Megan Belio, sophomore Megan Glosser and junior Stephanie Mattocks each contributing
three. Freshman Kaitlyn England tallied
two RBIs in the game, while Glosser added one.
For her efforts over the tournament Mattocks was one of the 12 OVC players to be named to the All-Tournament Team. Mattocks hit .625 (5-for-8) in the two games of the tournament, while earning two RBI's when she hit her third home run of the season against Eastern Illinois.
The Golden Eagles (26-29) got on the scoreboard early,
with three runs in the top of the first inning.
The Racers had runners on second and third in the bottom of the inning,
but were unable to get a run across the plate.
Both team's then stepped up their defense over the next
three innings and the score held at 3-0 in favor of TTU through the hour and 20
minute rain delay in the third inning and the fourth.
The Golden Eagles added to their lead in the top of the
fifth, making the score 4-0. That is
until MSU got its offense going to cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the
inning. Freshman Megan Belio led off the
inning with a single down the left field line and was followed on base by
sophomore Megan Glosser when she was hit by a pitch. Junior Jenna Bradley moved Belio to third
with a fielder's choice. Freshman Ellyn Troup drew a walk to load the bases, which allowed a fielder's choice by
freshman Kaitlyn England to score two runs.
TTU added two more runs in the top of the sixth, but MSU
again countered with one run in the bottom of the inning. Belio hit a single in the gap between third
and short and came around to score when Glosser reached on a throwing error by
the third baseman that allowed her to reach third. That made the score 6-3 and would be the
final run to cross the plate for either team.
Quotes
Head
Coach Jay Pyron
"To make the conference tournament as a first-year team
is a credit to our players. It is not
the ultimate goal that we were looking for, but it is something that we
recognize as a special achievement for us."
"Across the board we could have played a little better in
the tournament. We saw good moments from
both our offense and pitching staff, but there were also moments that we let
slip away from us."
"The team learned a lot of important lessons this season,
the biggest being that you are never out of a game, with the ability that we
have to generate and score runs. The
season is long and you just have to play your game no matter if things are
going good or if they are going bad."
Junior
Stephanie Mattocks
"We are frustrated that we are out of the tournament, but
we will learn from this for next season."