Box Score 1 GAME ONE BOX | GAME TWO BOX
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Eastern Kentucky University softball team's record-breaking season came to a close Thursday afternoon in the National Invitational Softball Championship as the Colonels defeated the University of Texas at Arlington, 8-6, to stay alive, but fell to the University of California, Riverside, 7-1, to cap its 45-win season. Â
EKU (45-21) jumped on top early in game one. Destinee Lizzmore collected a lead-off single to center field and was brought home on a Hannah Clark bomb to make it 2-0 in the first stanza.
The Mavericks (30-28) plated a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the frame to knot it up at 2-2.
Clark, Emily Corbitt and Zoe Mihalicz each launched two-out home runs in the third to break the tie and gain a four-run advantage, 6-2. But, UT Arlington struck again, collecting three runs on three hits in the bottom half of the inning to cut into the lead, 6-5, and draw within one.
Lizzmore kept tempo in the fourth sending her first pitch over the center field wall for a solo-shot to add insurance, 7-5.
Johnkyria Alston added a single in the seventh to tack on a final run to the Colonel total. UT Arlington responded with one run to set the final score at 8-6.
The win pushed the new single-season wins record even further, which was previously set at 42 by the 2004 squad.
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UC Riverside (38-23) struck first in game two, plating one on an error in the home-half of the second inning to make it 1-0.
Corbitt notched a lead-off single to open the fourth frame and moved into scoring position. The junior was brought home after Carly Robinson laced a RBI-single to left center to even the score, 1-1.
But, three-run fourth and fifth innings for the Highlanders stopped the Colonels in their tracks, creating a 7-1 deficit that EKU was unable to recover from.
Samantha Reynoso closed the game in the circle for Eastern, throwing one inning, collecting two strikeouts and giving up no runs.
Robinson, Clark and Alston were named to the NISC All-Tournament Team.
