Georgetown, Kentucky
Campbellsville University could not defend its No.-1 seed in Mid-South Conference tournament softball, losing twice to Georgetown on Saturday 7-4 and 5-3 ... relinquishing the MSC's automatic seed in the national tournament. The Lady Tigers will have to wait and see if their regular-season Mid-South-best record of 18-1-1 and 40-7-1 overall mark will catch the seeding panel's eye. Only seven at-large bids are available.
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Georgetown, which lost its first game of the tournament to win four in a row to take the title, needed 26 innings in its title run the last three games.
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Campbellsville, which had beaten Cumberlands 4-0 and Lindsey Wilson 1-0 to claim the winner's bracket spot in the double-elimination finals opposite Georgetown, saw its bats cool in its final teo games.
Georgetown pitched around the Lady Tigers' Bailey Dillender, who hit home runs in both of Campbellsville's wins. Dillender crushed a homer in the sixth inning of the first finals game and drew six consecutive intentional walks the rest of the way.
Campbellsville was playing from behind most of Saturday. The teams entered the ninth tied at 1-1 after Dillender's leadoff homer in the sixth.
CU tied the score at 3-3 in the ninth when Erika Creek scored two runs with a double.
But in the 10th Georgetown plated four runs on three hits. Campbellsville loaded the bases in its half of the inning, but could score but one time.
In the deciding game, Georgetown used a four-run fourth (and a 4-1 lead) that proved to be the difference.
Campbellsville scored two in the bottom of the fourth when consecutive singles by Jennifer England and Krystie Johnson closed the gap to 4-3. Georgetown got an insurance run in the sixth and Campbellsville squandered scoring opportunities in the last three innings by stranding six base runners.
