UT Tyler sweeps LC Lady Cats on Senior Day

Senior Day turned into something of a drag for the Louisiana College softball team. The Lady Cats dropped both games of their final home stand to American Southwest Conference East Division foe Texas-Tyler in heartbreaking fashion, 6-2 and 4-2. The latter of the two losses came in extra innings and sent LC (28-8, 15-7 ASC East), currently the No. 5 team in the nation, to fourth place in the loaded ASC East. Texas-Tyler (27-9, 13-7 ASC East), currently ranked No. 20 nationally, jumped to third place by virtue of now holding the tiebreaker over the Lady Cats with No. 6 East Texas Baptist (30-6, 15-5 ASC East) and No. 22 Mississippi College (27-9, 14-6) holding first and second. Were the season to end with the rankings thus arranged, the Lady Cats would miss out on the ASC Tournament, which takes only the top three teams from the East and West Divisions, but would still be alive in the hunt for the NCAA tournament, which last year took four teams from the ASC East. LC has just two games remaining in divisional play this year, a road doubleheader at ETBU on Friday. On Saturday, the LC family honored three Lady Wildcats who were playing in their final home games at Coca-Cola Lady Wildcats Field: pitchers Rene' Schwartzenburg (Marksville, La./Marksville HS) and Kelly Williams (Monroe, La./St. Thomas More) and catcher Amber Thomas (Rosepine, La./Rosepine HS). Thomas had quite the showing in the first game, going 3-for-4 with a two-run home run, her eighth of the year. All four runs on the day came off two-run home runs. In the second contest, sophomore Carli Wheeler (Baton Rouge, La./Parkview Baptist) connected on her third homer of the season. Hard luck found out the two senior pitchers though, with both taking the loss despite respectable outings. Schwartzenburg (16-3) took the loss in Game 1 after striking out five and allowing four earned runs while Williams (8-5) took the loss in Game 2 despite pitching all eight innings of the contest. Stacy Shepherd (9-3) was the winning pitcher in Game 1 and Katelyn Thomason (11-6) the winner in Game 2. Most of the Lady Cats were able to make hits. LC actually outhit the Patriots 20-19 across the two games. Unfortunately for LC, Texas-Tyler was better able to produce the timely hit, particularly in the second game, one in which nine-hole hitter Ashlee Johnson connected on a two-out, two-run home run in the top of the eight to secure the win.