What you need to know:
* Georgia State managed just one hit as the Panthers were knocked out of the Sun Belt Conference Championship in the semifinals by No. 2-seed South Alabama 3-1.
* The Panthers stranded six in the loss and finish the regular season with a 38-22 record.
* GSU now must wait for the NCAA Selection Show on Sunday, May 10 at 10 p.m. to learn if it has done enough to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
SAN MARCOS, Texas – Ivie Drake managed GSU's only hit and Lauren Coleman drove in a run as Georgia State was defeated by No. 23 South Alabama 3-1 Friday night, eliminating the Panthers in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Championship. South Alabama went on to win the Sun Belt championship.
“It is a tough loss, but my hat is off to Farish Beard and South Alabama because they played a great game,” head coach Roger Kincaid said. “We had our opportunities. We had the bases loaded in the sixth inning and I thought we were going to come up big, we just didn't get it done. Sometimes you win those kind of games and sometimes you lose.”
GSU now waits to see if it has done enough to receive an at-large bid to a NCAA tournament regional. The 2015 NCAA Division I Softball Championship bracket will be revealed live on ESPNU on Sunday, May 10 at 10 p.m. The field includes 64 teams, with 32 automatic bids and 32 at-large bids.
GSU entered the tournament No, 43 in RPI at 35-20 and picked up three more wins. The Panthers beat No. 60 Troy, No. 74 UL Monroe and Georgia Southern, while losing to No. 10 UL Lafayette and No. 29 RPI South Alabama. So, the Sun Belt is a respected softball conference.
“I am proud of where we are at and where we finished. We would like to be playing in the championship game tomorrow, but best of luck to UL Lafayette and South Alabama. We had a good season and are hopefully going to get int the NCAA tournament. I think we have done enough, and I hope the committee agrees. I am really proud of this team and I feel they deserve to go to the postseason. I hope they are rewarded with a bid Sunday.”
Georgia State finished the regular season 38-22 and blasted a single-season school record 102 home runs. That total is the second highest in Sun Belt history behind only UL Lafayette's 106 homers this season.The 38 wins tie for the fifth-most in school history.
South Alabama took a 1-0 lead in the first on Chloe Rathburn's RBI single. After a scoreless second, Georgia State put runners on the corners in the third but were unable to push any runners across. The Jaguars then doubled their lead in the fourth on Emily Messer's RBI triple.
After South Alabama added a third run in the fifth, Georgia State finally got on the board with a single run in the top of the sixth. A hit by pitch and an error put two runners on for Drake, who singled to load the bases and break up Jaguar starter Farish Beard's no-hitter.
Anderson then scored on Coleman's deep sacrifice fly to the warning track to cut the South Alabama lead to 3-1. A walk by Megan Litumbe, after a blast that was home-run distance, but foul, down the leftfield line, loaded the bases again. But a pop-up ended the threat. GSU then went down in order in the seventh to end the game and give the Jaguars the victory.
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