Henderson State's hopes of a Great American Conference Tournament championship came up short on Saturday night, as the Reddies fell 8-1 to Southern Arkansas in Bentonville, Ark.
The Reddies concluded their season with a 35-26 record, going 3-2 throughout the duration of the tournament as the #6 seed with wins over Southeastern Oklahoma, Southern Nazarene, and Arkansas Tech.
SAU began the game putting up one run in the top of the first inning, when Maddie Dow singled to center field, scoring Liz Hudgins and giving the Lady Muleriders a 1-0 lead.
Henderson State, playing its third contest of the day, could not come up with an answer as SAU posted a four-run third inning to increase its lead to 5-0.
The Lady Muleriders would tack on two more runs in the bottom of the fifth when Chelsea Jordan singled up the middle to score Ashton Atwell, and Liz Hudgins reached on a fielder's choice which plated Tyler Casada.
HSU attempted a comeback in the bottom of the sixth inning when a pinch-running
Alexis Morton slid into home plate safely on a sacrifice fly RBI from
Hope Patterson, making the score 7-1 SAU.
However, the Reddies could climb no closer as SAU's pitcher Peyton Jenkins closed the door on an HSU comeback attempt for the remainder of the inning.
SAU's Summer Ehrig then provided an insurance run with a double to center field that scored Casada in the top of the seventh to give SAU the 8-1 lead.
Henderson State finished the contest with six hits and left six batters stranded, while Southern Arkansas compiled 14 hits on the evening.
Michelle Sorensen provided the first 2.2 innings of work after pitching two complete games for the Reddies, recording two strikeouts before exchanging with
Madison Calvert midway through the third inning.
Calvert pitched in the next 1.2 innings, while
Ashlyn White finished the contest for the Reddies.
Sorensen would take the loss for HSU, finished the year with a 22-12 record, and now holds the career record for strikeouts at HSU with 385 after just two seasons.
Southern Arkansas will advance to the championship to take on Harding at Noon on Sunday.
