Patriots close out regular season strong; finish third in ASC East

The Patriots softball team went 5-1 on the road during the final week of the regular season, featuring two no-hitters (one perfect game) and four shutouts by the pitching staff.

However, that was not enough as the Patriots finished in third place in the American Southwest Conference East Division and enter the conference tournament this weekend with the No. 3 seed.

They open up the double-elimination tournament at 6 p.m. Thursday with a game against Howard Payne University at Trinity View Park in Irving.

Earlier in the week on April 20, the Patriots traveled to The University of the Ozarks to take on the Lady Eagles.

In the first game, the Patriots put four runs on the board in the first inning, which proved to be enough for Kelsey Ainsworth, who went all seven innings in the 8-1 win.

Whitney Wyly and Kate Bell each hit a home run in the game to lead the offense.

In game two of the doubleheader, the offense supplied plenty of runs while Stacy Shepherd tossed a five-inning perfect game, striking out eight batters in the 22-0 rout.

The perfect game is the second one ever in the history of the program with current Patriots pitcher Kelsey Harrington tossing a perfect game in 2008.

The star of this game was Wyly, who went 2-for-4 with six runs batted in and one home run. Julie Smith added four hits and three runs while Allison Hurt went 2-for-4 and one home run, knocking in three runners.

Whitney Haynes also hit her first home run of her career in the game while going a perfect 3-for-3 and knocking in four runners.

On Friday, the Patriots went to Longview to make up a doubleheader against LeTourneau University that originally was cancelled due to weather a week before.

The pitching turned out to be the key to victory again.

In game one, Ainsworth tossed a five-inning no-hitter in the 11-0 victory. Ainsworth just missed tossing the second straight perfect game for the Patriots when she hit the first batter of the second inning.

Megan “Roo” Richardson hit a home run while scoring three runs and Wyly continued her hitting streak by going 2-for-4 and knocking in four more runners. Brittanni Hanna added two runs batted in while going 2-for-3.

In game two, the offense only scored four runs but it was more than enough with Shepherd throwing another gem, going all seven innings, giving up only three hits and no runs.

Sara DeStefano went 2-for-3 and knocked in the game’s first run in the second inning, which proved to be the game-winning run. Hanna and Smith also added two hits for the Patriots.

The very next day, the Patriots traveled to Pineville, La. to take on arch-rival Louisiana College.

The Patriots needed a doubleheader sweep to have any chance of moving into second place in the division.

All hopes for second place ended in the first game when the Lady Wildcats shut down the high-powered Patriots lineup and won game one 7-0.

Lady Wildcats’ ace pitcher McCaslin Carson went all seven innings, giving up only two hits while striking out six to improve to 12-2.

Ainsworth started the game and finished with her fourth loss of the season.

Game two turned out to be totally the opposite with the Patriots shutting out Louisiana College by a score of 5-0.

Shepherd continued her late season dominance on the mound by going all seven innings, giving up three hits to improve her record to 6-0 on the season.

No Patriot hitter got more than one hit with Bell hitting a solo home run and Wyly recording a triple for her only hit. Wyly did come around to score in the same play that she hit her triple because of a throwing error by Lady Wildcats’ second baseman Ashleigh Clement.

After the doubleheader sweep, the Patriots finished the season with a 31-7 overall record and 17-7 in the conference. Louisiana College finished one game better overall at 32-6 and 19-5 in the division.

Wyly ended the season with 67 runs batted in, which was not only a new school record but a conference record. The old record was 63, which Richardson set last season.

Wyly also tied the school record this season for home runs in single season, which is 14. Richardson set the record last season and finished with 11 this season.

Five Patriots broke the previous record of the highest single season batting average.

Haynes finished the season with a .512 average; Ashley Klores with a .463; Smith with a .459; Wyly with a .451 and Richardson with a .444 batting average.

The ASC Tournament begins Thursday in Irving with East Texas Baptist University and Hardin-Simmons University both receiving first-round byes’ for winning the ASC East and ASC West Division’s respectively.

The winner of the Patriots-Howard Payne game on Thursday plays ETBU on Friday morning at 11 a.m. The Patriots went 0-4 versus ETBU this season.

The Patriots had Howard Payne on the schedule but it got cancelled due to rain.

Last season at the conference tournament, the Patriots lost 2-1 to Louisiana College in the championship game.

By Jeremy Cotham Sports Editor