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Jacksoon, Kayla starts motion

Softball By: Brian Ramsey

BLAZERS EARN GSC CROWN, BLOSSOMS SHUTOUT TWICE

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – The University of Arkansas at Monticello softball team experienced déjà vu on Sunday with a pair of losses to No. 4 Valdosta State to allow the Lady Blazers to capture their third straight Gulf South Conference title.

UAM entered the day as the undefeated team, but the Lady Blazers quieted the Cotton Blossoms with 4-0 and 2-0 wins on Sunday.

A similar situation occurred during the 2010 postseason, when the Cotton Blossoms defeated VSU 5-1 in 12 innings in the first game of the NCAA Super Regional to put the team one win away from the world series, but the Lady Blazers responded with a pair of one-run victories on the following day to end UAM’s season.

Sunday’s wins for VSU will hopefully not end UAM’s 2011 campaign, as the Cotton Blossoms entered the weekend ranked eighth in the region and captured four wins over higher-ranked teams. The NCAA will host a selection show online to announce the pairings and host sites of next weekend’s regional tournament at 9 a.m. central on Monday, May 9 (www.ncaa.com). Each region takes the top eight teams. VSU, Rollins College and Fort Valley State have earned automatic berths from the south region into the tournament by winning the GSC, Sunshine State Conference and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles, respectively.

As far as Sunday’s action, the Lady Blazers (39-9) capitalized on a pair of UAM errors to score four unearned runs in the third inning of the first game for the only scoring of the contest.

UAM (43-14) outhit the Lady Blazers in game one with a final 6-4 margin. Junior Kayla Jackson, the tournament’s most outstanding player, went 2-for-2 with a walk. Jackson (26-7) also took the loss in complete-game fashion, but lowered her earned run average by not allowing an earned run off three hits with a pair of strikeouts and no walks. Jackson was pulled in the fifth for junior Amanda Nordberg, who kept VSU scoreless on only one hit, while striking out five in the final two innings.

Prior to being pulled in the fifth, Jackson had tossed 34 consecutive innings.

VSU’s Margaret Carter (11-1) earned the win in relief, keeping UAM scoreless off two hits in the final 3.2 innings.

Carter was sent out to the circle again in game two, and continued her impressive day by allowing only three UAM hits in a complete-game shutout.

VSU scored one run in the fourth on an RBI single by Collette Rollins, and capitalized the scoring with another run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Marti Littlefield.

Two of UAM’s three hits came from freshmen Summer Huddleston and Brittany Eitel in consecutive at bats in the fifth to break up Carter’s no-hit bid. UAM’s final hit came from sophomore Faith Lund in the bottom of the sixth.

Senior right fielder Sarah Hayslip joined Jackson on the all-tournament team. Other selections included Rebecca Schick and Alisha Fincher of West Alabama, and Kelli Long and Whitney Gilbert of Alabama-Huntsville. Valdosta State earned four selections to the all-tournament team – Marti Littlefield, Margaret Carter, Melissa Jackson and Holly Satterfield.
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