MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Seven games in four days is a lot to ask of one team, however, that is exactly what the Alabama State University softball team had to do to play in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship game after losing on day two.
 
Alabama State (21-33) had to win three games on the final day of the tournament to win the title, but came up just short in the finale as Texas Southern University was able to break a tie in the fifth inning and hold on for a 6-4 win to claim the conference championship.
 
After holding on the defeat Southern (7-6) early Saturday morning, the Lady Hornets battled Texas Southern in a seven inning affair just 75 minutes later. In that contest, Alabama State jumped on top of Texas Southern starter Jasmine Fulmore (11-4) with three runs in the first two innings. The Lady Hornets scored a single run in the first when Laura Aguilar scored on a Kendall Core double just inches shy of a home run; and would later add a pair in the second on a Brittney Wilson RBI single and an Aguilar RBI single for the 3-0 lead.
 
After Texas Southern (25-19) trimmed the deficit to 3-1, the Lady Hornets responded with a single run in the sixth and three more in the top of the seventh to extend the lead to 7-1.
 
In the seventh inning, Diauna Nelson doubled home a pair of runs in the left center gap, before Wilson came up with another double to score Nelson for the final run of the contest for the Lady Hornets – which proved to be a big run by the end of the contest.
 
Texas Southern mounted a comeback, courtesy of a trio of Alabama State errors, in the bottom half of the seventh inning as they got to within a run at 7-6 with the tying run at second base. However, Charlene Castro closed the door on the Lady Tigers as she induced a ground ball for the final out of the contest to force a winner-take-all match up just 30 minutes later.
 
Vanessa Bradford (11-13) picked up the win in the opener as worked 6.1 innings and scattered four hits, giving up three runs (all unearned).
 
The Lady Hornets hit the field for the third time in just over six hours for the SWAC championship and Texas Southern throughout, even taking the early lead in the first inning. Alabama State got on the board after Perry Hindi singled through the right side with two outs, driving in Aguilar for a 1-0 Lady Hornet lead.
 
However, Texas Southern came back and scored three of their own in the bottom half of the second – the first time the Lady Hornets had trailed in 35 innings during tournament play. The Lady Hornets cut the deficit to 3-2 in the third inning when Valerie Centeno drew a lead-off walk and later scored on sacrifice fly by Hindi.
 
Texas Southern would push the lead to 4-2 in the third, before Alabama State tied the game up in the fourth inning when Aguilar scored on a Core sacrifice fly and Therese Byrne scored on a Hindi single to left. However, Texas Southern was able to put the game away in the fifth inning with a pair of runs.
 
Justine Jean (8-13) was the hard-luck loser as she went six innings, scattering nine hits and allowing six runs and one strikeout.
 
Core led the way in the two games for Alabama State, finishing 4-for-7 with a pair of doubles and runs batted in; while Castro, Nelson, Alexia Boggess and Wilson each picked up three hits in the two games against Texas Southern.
 
Jean, who finished 4-1 (2.36 ERA) in the tournament was selected for the All-Tournament team; as was Hindi (.400 with eight runs batted in), Centeno (.435 with seven runs batted in) and Amira James (.444 with a pair of home runs off the bench). For the tournament, the Lady Hornets pounded out 72 hits and scored 43 runs over a four-day period.
 
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