May 15, 2016
NCAA: TYLER, Texas (5/14/16) – Saturday turned out to be not quite what #8 East Texas Baptist University had hoped it would be as they fell in the elimination game to #5 Texas Lutheran University, 12-9, ending their season in the NCAA Tournament. ETBU finishes the 2016 season at 35-10 and won their eighth American Southwest Conference championship.
Seniors Jessica Bowden and Alexis Padilla combined for five hits and three runs scored in their final game at ETBU. Bowden was 2-of-3 with two runs scored while Padilla went 3-of-5 with four RBI and a home run. Adding two hits were Lindsey Vasquez, Jayme Perez, Lacey Lindsey and Shelby Irlbeck. Vasquez, Lewis, Perez, Lindsey and Hollingshead all had one RBI as Lindsey's was a home run. ETBU recorded 13 hits in the game and only one strikeout on the team. Kelly Jo McLendon came in for relief and went five innings recording the loss with one strikeout. Rocki Tello started going 3.1 innings with one strike out. Kaitlyn Males came in to finish the final two outs of the 9th inning and had one strikeout.
The game went back and forth as TLU had as large as a five-run lead. Early on in the fifth inning, TLU was up 5-2. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead but a run in the second by Hollingshead cut the lead in half, 2-1. TLU answered with a run in the fourth only to see Lindsey hit her 13th home run of the year coming within one again, 3-2. By the end of the top of the 5th inning TLU had pushed ahead by three, 5-2.
ETBU’s best inning came in the fifth inning with five runs to take the lead, 7-5. Irlbeck was the first to score on an error and the Lewis had a ground out RBI for the second run. Perez then singled in a run and then Padilla doubled for the 7-5 lead. It didn’t last that long as TLU tied the game up at seven at the top of the sixth inning. That score of seven stayed until the ninth inning when TLU added five runs for a 12-7 lead. ETBU had chances to win the game in both the seventh and eighth inning but couldn’t find the game winning hit.
ETBU finishes their season with 35 wins and were the ASC Champions. They lose four seniors in Alexis Padilla, Kelly Jo McLendon, J.J. Mithell, and Jessica Bowden.