Alcorn Stays Competitive but Drops Two on Final Day of Mississippi State Tournament

STARKVILLE, Miss. – To close out the Mississippi State Tournament, the Alcorn State University softball program came on the short end of a 9-1 final to Mercer and 8-6 to Lamar on Sunday at Nusz Park.
 
Over the five-game tournament, freshman Amari Ramsey hit for a .417 batting average and .563 on-base percentage. She went 5-for-12 with four walks.
 
The Lady Braves (1-14) got off to a slow start against Mercer (14-5). The Bears plated four in the first inning and two in the second to jump out to a quick 6-0 lead.
 
Alcorn scored in the top of the third. With two outs, freshman Desirea Lindsey doubled to left field and scored on an RBI single by Ramsey. They were Alcorn's only two hits in the game as Mercer's Jill McElderry struck out seven in 5.0 frames.
 
Senior Robin Harrison tossed 3.1 frames and struck out a pair. She gave up nine runs but only three were earned. Junior Winter Ridgeway recorded the final two outs with a strikeout.
 
"Maybe it was the 9 a.m. start after the late game last night, but we didn't start off like we needed to in game one and we couldn't recover. We were one pitch away from getting out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning, but caught a little too much of the plate on a pitch and just like that we were down 4-0 in the first," said Alcorn head coach Josef Rankin.
 
The bats came to life in game two as Alcorn notched nine hits and scored six runs. It got on the board in the third inning after sophomore Alicia Hill led-off with a walk and advanced to second on a single to left by Lindsey. The Lady Braves then tallied back-to-back RBI singles by seniors Mariah Ortiz and Taylor Hughes to cut the deficit to 3-2.
 
After Lamar extended its advantage to 7-2, the Lady Braves didn't go away and plated two more in the fifth. With runners on second and third, Ortiz singled to left center for an RBI and Hughes followed with a sacrifice fly to score another.
 
Trailing 8-4 in the seventh, Alcorn made one last push in its final at-bat. The Lady Braves put runners on first and second with one out after Ramsey reached on an infield single and Ortiz walked. After a wild pitch, Ramsey came home on a passed ball. Senior Victoria Tyler delivered an RBI single to right center to score the second run and make it an 8-6 game with one out. Though, with the go-ahead run at the plate, the game ended after a pair of flyouts.
 
"We did a little better swinging the bats against Lamar. Our team did an awesome job of fighting. It's a real gut punch to hit a two-run homer in the first and have it taken away by an umpire's call. I'm not saying it was wrong, but it was a very tough one to take," Rankin said.
 
Alcorn used three pitchers as freshman Lindsey Eldridge started and pitched the first two innings, junior Paige Taylor the next 1.2 and junior Winter Ridgeway the final 2.1.
 
Ramsey, Ortiz, Hughes and Tyler also knocked two hits in the match.
 
The Lady Braves continued to jumble their lineups and have now used 15 different batting orders in 15 games this season.
 
"We've done some good things over the last month in becoming a better team. We are going to take some time to focus on our mid-term exams, heal up a bit and get back to work in preparation for Central Arkansas and Texas Southern," Rankin said.
 
Alcorn will have a little bit of time off from competition before its next outing. The Lady Braves will travel to Central Arkansas on Tuesday, March 13 for a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. and will begin conference action the following weekend at home against TSU.
 
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