HATTIESBURG, Miss. - History was made for the second-straight season by Stillman College Softball, but the quest to play for the red banner fell short May 15, one win shy of the NAIA Opening Round championship game. After defeating Indiana University Southeast, 4-1, to begin the afternoon, Stillman dropped the night cap, 10-3, to No. 18 William Carey University on the Crusaders' home field.
"It was a huge win for us this morning. We knew it would be a fight. William Carey is a great team. We played them good there for a little bit, but it got out of hand there at the end," said Stillman head coach
Joel Penfield. "It was a tremendous year. It is something they will always have to remember that they made history in so many ways. It's a tremendous group and a great year. I hate it's over, but we'll go back to work this fall."
Stillman opened the season 19-0 and collected four wins over NAIA Top 25 opponents through the regular season before finishing third in the Southern States Athletic Conference tournament and becoming the first HBCU to earn an NAIA at-large bid. Two days after becoming the first HBCU to win an NAIA Opening Round game on Monday, May 13, Stillman won again Wednesday to become one of the final 30 teams playing in the NAIA and break the program single-season wins record with the best win percentage in program history at .712 (37-15). The Tigers finished the postseason 2-2 in the NAIA Opening Round and 5-2 in elimination games.
STILLMAN 4, INDIANA SOUTHEAST 1
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Moments after
Bailie Seales made a defensive play at the plate to preserve a shutout for starting pitcher
Jasmine Wade, Indiana Southeast took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Brynlea Bennett.Â
Stillman was no-hit by Madison
Wathen until the sixth inning. After a pair of walks,
Lauren Haskins beat out a bunt single and spark a 4-run inning.
Katelyn Lankford followed with a game-tying single to right to drive home
Kaila Boyd. The Tigers took a 2-1 lead on a walk by
Seales. Haskins then scored on a wild pitch and a
Carolyn Carter's RBI ground out capped the inning.Â
Brookwood, Alabama native
Lexi McCray shutdown IU Southeast in the sixth and seventh, including fielding the final out in the circle.Â
McCray (17-5) pitched 3.1 shutout innings, allowing only one hit, to record her 17th win and Stillman's program record 37th win. Wade pitched 3.2 innings, allowing one run off four hits and five walks.
WILLIAM CAREY 10, STILLMAN 3
William Carey got on the board in the first inning with a Carley Kidder RBI ground out to score Brooke Tanner, but Stillman answered with two runs in the top of the second to take a 2-1 lead.
Anniston Jones hit a bases-loaded hit to short that scored a run when WCU's catcher was ruled to not be touching home plate when she caught a potential force out that scored
Carolyn Carter to tie the game.
Lauren Haskins then walked with the bases juiced to plate
Savannah Pearce and take the lead. Another play at the plate retired the Tigers to leave the bases loaded.
Stillman did not reach base in the third or fourth innings, and William Carey capitalized with a four-run bottom of the fourth. A Susie LeBert single tied the game. Two walks by
Jasmine Wade loaded the bases before
Lexi McCray entered to pitch. A wild pitch, followed by a two-out A Davis RBI single and error helped give the Crusaders a 5-2 lead.
Madison Bubel singled to drive in Haskins in the fifth inning and make it a two-run game, but Carey got on the board again with an unearned run on a DeeDee West sac fly in the bottom of the fifth. The Crusaders then poured out four more runs in the sixth inning.
Bubel and Carter had the only hits in the game for Stillman, both off starting pitcher Kate Schroeder (14-4), who did not allow an earned run through five innings. Ryanne Hornsby closed the game for her third save of the season. Carey advances to meet Jessup University on Thursday, May 16.
Wade, McCray and
Faith Byram all pitched for Stillman. Â
