GREENSBORO, N.C. – The second-seeded College of Charleston softball team suffered a 3-2 loss to third-seeded Georgia Southern in 11 endings at the UNCG Softball Stadium on Friday afternoon, ending the Cougars spirited run to the Southern Conference Championship.
The loss caps off CofC's (37-20) third straight 37-win season and excludes the Cougars from the championship game for the first time since 2010. After falling in the opening round, the Cougars strung three wins together to progress through the losers' bracket, but ultimately fell one game short of their third straight finals appearance.
Sophomore Hope Klicker (Walla Walla, Wash.) offered another stellar outing and pitched through all 11 innings for the Cougars and only allowed one earned run while striking out nine batters against two walks.
Klicker and her counterpart, GSU's Brooke Red, pitched dominantly and blanked the opposition through regulation and led the teams into the ninth inning in a scoreless tie.
The Cougar offense finally supplied a run in the ninth and 10th innings, but both times the Eagles had an answer. When the Cougars failed to convert a run in the top of the 11th, GSU came through with the game-winning run in the bottom half.
The complete game, Klicker's 21st of the season, pushed her inning total to 30.0 between four appearances on Thursday and Friday as she earned three wins to advance the team to the semifinals.
The Cougars finished the game with nine hits with Kelsey Hodgson (Woodstock, Ga.), Ashton Jarrett (Hanahan, S.C.) and Mackenzie Maples (Corona, Calif.) combining for seven of the nine.
Lexi Allen singled for the Eagles in the first inning, but shortstop Lizzy Vaughn (Placerville, Calif.) initiated a smooth 6-4-3 double play to erase the base runner.
The Eagles managed two more singles in the bottom of the fourth, but another Cougar double play – this one initiated by Klicker herself – meant she faced only one more than the minimum 12 hitters through four innings.
The Cougars threatened in the third with a leadoff double to right center by senior Kristy Giragosian (Charlotte, N.C.). Carly Corthell (Reno, Nev.) executed the sacrifice bunt to put the potential go-ahead run 60 feet away with one out, but the Cougars couldn't bring the run to the plate.
The Eagles managed a runner in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings but Klicker stayed composed and kept her defense out of any overly-threatening situations.
GSU put two runners on base with one out and were looking for a walkoff base hit in the seventh, but Klicker bore down for two strikeouts to send the game into extra innings.
The Cougars eked out the game's first run in the ninth with infield singles by Hodgson and Maples followed by a wild pitch which put runners on second and third with two outs. Rebecca Mueller (Fair Oaks, Calif.) swung and missed on a pitch in the dirt, but alertly bolted for first as the ball got away from the Eagle catcher and narrowly beat the throw to the base to allow the run to score.
Georgia Southern extended the game with a run of their own in the bottom of the ninth off a leadoff single by Shelby Morrill and a game-tying RBI single by Kaitlyn Johnson when the Eagles were down to their final strike.
With the international tiebreak applied in the tenth, Giragosian was placed on second base to start the inning and Corthell sacrificed her to third base with a bunt as the first batter of the inning. Jarrett dropped a blooper behind the shortstop to plate the go ahead run once more.
GSU again had an answer, however, as they scored their automatic runner in the bottom half with a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly in their first two at bats of the frame.
Maples successfully sacrificed the Cougar runner to third in the 11th, but CofC was unable to convert as back-to-back pop outs stranded the runner.
The Eagles were successful in the bottom half with the game winning RBI coming on a single to right by Andrea Tarashuk.
