Box Score
DENTON, Texas — St. Mary's couldn't have done much more defensively Friday. But with its bats struggling on the opposite end, one defensive mistake was too many.
The No. 4-seeded Rattlers and No. 5-seed Midwestern State were stuck in a scoreless deadlock in the top of the seventh inning when MSU found the pitch it was looking for on the opening day of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional.
Katelyn Vinson blasted a solo shot for the go-ahead run, and the Mustangs tacked on three more runs by the end of the inning in a 4-0 victory over No. 25 St. Mary's at Texas Woman's Pioneer Field.
“We battled all the way to give up four runs in the seventh inning,” St. Mary's head coach
Donna Fields said. “It was not a reflection of the game. MSU was diligent to wait for the one pitch to take them over the hump.”
St. Mary's (43-14) will play Incarnate Word in an elimination game at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the home field of host Texas Woman's, the South Central Region 1 tournament's top seed.
Against MSU, the Rattlers scattered five hits off Laci Belovsky but couldn't bring anything home.
“We looked at games MSU has played this season and you have to outscore them,” Fields said. “Their series against Tarleton they had games of 14-13 and 13-11. We knew we had to hit. We did not hit the way we are capable of.”
Emily Brittain (Jr., Corpus Christi, Texas) struck out three in defeat, falling to 26-5 on the season after pitching 6 2/3 innings. She yielded four runs, three of which were earned.
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.rattlerathletics.com.
