TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Central Arkansas softball team opened its NCAA tournament with a loss to Middle Tennessee on Friday, giving up a big fifth inning to fall to the loser's bracket in Tuscaloosa.
Falling to the Blue Raiders moves the Bears to 44-11 on the season, and the 8-0 final score marks the worst loss of the season. After what seemed like a promising start, both sides of the ball fell into a funk, an inopportune time for Central Arkansas to have its first real bad night of the year.
Kayla Beaver and the defense opened the game with a three-up, three-down start, with two groundouts and a strikeout sending the Bears to the plate quickly.
Tremere Harris and
Kylie Griffin started the offense with back-to-back singles, and it looked like things were going to go the way they had 44 times this season. But three-straight outs, including two pop-ups, halted any scoring opportunity for the Bears.
Middle Tennessee put the first run through in the second, a two-out single that sent a runner home from second. The Bears couldn't find the same flow as in the first, popping three balls up to end the inning. The Blue Raiders put hits on the ground in the third and fourth, but the Bears were able to keep everything in front of them and keep MTSU from scoring, keeping within arm's reach.
But the bottom opened up in the fifth, as Middle Tennessee scored seven in the inning to pull away. It marked the first game of the season that the Bears have been on the losing side of a run rule, having won 11 games during the season via run rule. History, however, favors Central Arkansas; the Bears have lost back-to-back games just twice this season, once in February in two-straight against nationally ranked LSU, and once in the first weekend of March.
The Bears now have to repeat its feat from last weekend, winning multiple games a day to advance to the next destination. Now all eyes are on the Alabama versus Long Island game; the loser of that game will be Central Arkansas' next opponent, with both teams facing elimination. Game time is set for approximately 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
