OXFORD, Ala. – SIUE softball entered the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship game Saturday with a four-game winning streak but fell in the title contest 6-1 to top-seeded Jacksonville State.
Jordan LaFave, Rachel Keller and Allison Smiley were named to the All-Tournament team.
SIUE played three games Friday and three games Saturday in a run through the tournament that included defeating each of the three first team All-OVC pitchers.
The tournament theme of #CatchFire certainly seemed to be appropriate for the Cougars, which finished the season with a 28-26 record.
"I can't say enough about how proud I am of these kids and how they fought and battled and scrapped this whole tournament," said SIUE Head Coach Sandy Montgomery.
SIUE opened Saturday with an elimination game against Eastern Kentucky, defeating the Colonels 3-2. Keller's sixth-inning three-run homer lifted the Cougars. It was Keller's first home run of the season.
"That was an indescribable moment I don't think I could ever put into words. It was nice to be there for my team and pick them up," said Keller.
After eliminating EKU, SIUE needed two wins over Jacksonville State for the OVC title.
SIUE won the first game 2-1 thanks to back-to-back sacrifice squeeze bunts by Amy Hunt and Kelsey Hansen in the second inning. SIUE's Baylee Douglass outdueled JSU's Whitney Gillespie for her 18th win of the season by allowing just three hits against the league's top offense.
That win ended Jacksonville State's 20-game winning streak, but the Gamecocks rebounded in game two for the day.
The Gamecocks hit two home runs in the final game, collecting 11 hits. Taylor West was the winning pitcher.
SIUE scored its lone run in the game in the seventh on the third home run of the season by Smiley.
LaFave reflected on the team's tournament run and her four seasons as a Cougar. All three seniors were members of SIUE's first OVC softball title in 2014.
"It's a bittersweet feeling. We have had a lot of accomplishments in our four years here," she said.
In what was SIUE's third consecutive appearance in the OVC Tournament title game, Montgomery said her senior class of Hansen, LaFave and Keller were standouts.
"It was a pleasure to coach them. They never let me down one time this week," she said.
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