UWA Knocks Off No. 2 UAH To Close Out 2008

LIVINGSTON, Ala.  – The University of West Alabama softball team closed out the 2008 campaign knocking off 2^nd-ranked University of Alabama in Huntsville, 6-5 with a seventh inning comeback by the Tigers.  The second game of the twinbill was canceled in the second inning by rain showers in Livingston with UAH leading 5-2.

Junior Monica Rethwill’s single up the middle scored Kelli Hartley from third and Valisha Fincher slid in pass the tag for the game-winning run against UAH.  Hartley started the inning with a walk followed by Fincher’s single.  Freshman centerfielder Angela Smith moved the duo into scoring position with a slap hit to the right side of the infield.  Fincher led all Tiger batters at the plate with three hits in the contest, all coming in her final three at-bats.  She reached base by an error by the pitcher in her first appearance.  Freshman Kassadie Jones picked up the win in relief.

The Chargers (45-7, 16-5 GSC) opened the scoring with a run in the second inning.  Krystal Johnson led off the frame with a single to right field and crossed the plate on Erin Duke’s RBI-single.  UAH threatened for more in the inning but Smith threw out her first of two runners at the plate in the game to end in the second.  UWA responded with a two spot in the bottom half of the inning.  Junior Laura Bagwell reached via a fielder’s choice and was plated on Ashley Edgar’s triple to right field.  Edgar scored on Hartley’s single up the middle.  The Tigers extended the one-run advantage in the fifth off the bat of Bagwell.  The Ragland, Ala.-product belted a two-run blast over the left field wall to give the Red and White a 4-1 lead after the fifth.  The Chargers responded in the sixth, scoring four runs in the inning to take a 5-4 lead into the seventh.  The big hit in the frame for UAH was Beth Lawson’s two-run home run to left center, scoring the go-ahead run.

The Tigers closed out the 22^nd season of fast pitch softball with a 29-29 overall record and 7-16 in the GSC under first-year head coach Will Atkinson.  The win total is the most for the UWA program since the 1997 season.