University of St. Thomas Athletics
UW-La Crosse
NCAA Fri. Softball: UST stays alive with comeback win
5/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Senior Morgan Betker slugged a three-run homer and junior Marta Radcliffe retired the last 12 batters of the game as No. 2-ranked St. Thomas scored a 5-3 comeback victory over UW-LaCrosse in Friday's first elimination game at the NCAA regional softball tournament in Indianola, Iowa.
Betker's home run was the 21st of her career for UST (40-5), which reached 40 wins for the sixth year in a row.
The top-seeded Tommies move on to play another elimination game Saturday at noon against the Gustavus-Luther loser. UST has no margin for error and must win twice Saturday and twice Sunday to claim the regional title.
Fifth-seed LaCrosse used a three-run homer in the second inning to take a 3-0 lead. The Toms answered with four runs in the fourth inning on singles by Missy Bruggeman and Alison Wright, an RBI double by Steph Moores, and Betker's three-run homer.
UST added a run in the top of the seventh inning on a walk, sacrifice bunt, stolen base and two-out double by Bruggeman. Moores, Bruggeman, Wright each had two hits and UST outhit LaCrosse 8-3.
Radlciffe allowed three hits and one walk with four strikeouts. After a leadoff single in the fourth inning, she retired the last 12 Eagle batters.
LaCrosse (34-12) finished with a school-record 34 wins but lost all three season meetings with St. Thomas.
Click here for box score:
http://www.simpson.edu/storm/2009softball/trny05.htm
Click here for results, schedule:
