Historic Softball Season Comes to an End in NCAA Regional Championship Game
5/11/2019
INSTITUTE, W.Va. – West Virginia State University concluded their historic season with a 11-5 loss to West Chester in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region 2 championship game Saturday afternoon at Lady Jacket Field.
The Yellow Jackets (35-16) hosted the NCAA Regional for the first time in program history and won the most regular season conference wins (24) for the first time in program history. WVSU also were the Mountain East Conference South Division regular season champions.
State fell behind 5-0 after 1 ½ innings but showed great resiliency in battling back. The Yellow Jackets scored one in the second and three more in the third inning to climb within one run.
In the second inning,
Paige Scruggs singled and
Zoey Carte followed with a RBI single. With both runners on second and third base,
Callie Huck hit a RBI groundout to put WVSU on the board.
The Yellow Jackets plated three runs in the third inning to get right back in the game.
Kayleigh Thompson was hit by a pitch and
Brookelyn Hale singled.
Emma Ruth hit a RBI double for State to cut the West Chester to 5-2.
Brittany Allison walked and
Paige Scruggs drove in a run on a fielder's choice. A double steal for WVSU to score Ruth cut the Rams lead down to one.
West Chester would tack on three runs in the fourth inning to lead 8-4 when Allison crushed a solo home run for the Yellow Jackets. It was her 11
th home run of the season and the senior finished her career tied for third with
Sydney Kaplan in program history in career home runs with 29. Thompson was the lone State batter with multi-hits, going 2 for 3. WVSU showed good balance though in the lineup with five different players scoring runs and six different batters with a hit.
West Chester (37-19) advances to the Atlantic Region championship series against Shepherd, from the Mountain East Conference. The Rams won the Division II Atlantic Region 1 championship played at host West Liberty.