BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Higher seeds won all four games on Thursday at the 2024 Great American Conference Softball Championships. Following first-round wins by Arkansas Tech and Southeastern Oklahoma State, Southern Arkansas and Harding secured spots in the semifinals.
GAME 4 - No. 3 Harding 6, No. 6 Southeastern Oklahoma State
The Harding softball team picked up its 15th Great American Conference Tournament victory Thursday as the Lady Bisons defeated Southeastern Oklahoma 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
Riley Price got the win for Harding to improve to 19-10 on the season. It was her 28th start this season. She threw her seventh complete game, allowing four hits, one earned runs and striking out four. She picked up her 200th career strikeout in the game.
Macy Ham and Chelsea Blankenship both had two hits in the game. Blankenship drove in two. The Lady Bisons had three stolen bases in the game.
GAME 3 - No. 4 Southern Arkansas 8, No. 5 Arkansas Tech 2
A six-run second inning carried the Muleriders to an 8-2 against Arkansas Tech. Kamryn Moctezuma and Savannah Clausen hit home runs in the victory.
Moctezuma opened the scoring with a solo home run in the first inning. Following a Morgan McAlexander two-run single, Clausen's home run, her first of the season, extended the lead to 6-0.
The tandem of Sydney Ward and GAC Newcomer of the Year Brinson Rogers held the Golden Suns to six hits. Ward improved to 16-8. Rogers struck out six of the eight batters she faced in two scoreless innings of work. She reached the 200-strikeout milestone during the game.
GAME 2 - No. 6 Southeastern Oklahoma State 9, No. 7 Arkansas-Monticello 4
Sabetha Sands hammered out three hits and drove in three runs to power Southeastern to a 9-4 win against Arkansas-Monticello.
Sands finished the game 3-for-3 with a double and three runs batted in, while Sage Harlow and Kamryn Rackley each collected a pair of hits. Rackley chipped in two RBI
Emily Simmons also got the start in the circle and tossed a complete game, allowing four runs, two of them earned, on five hits with six strikeouts to earn her ninth win of the year.
GAME 1 - No. 5 Arkansas Tech 6, No. 8 Henderson State 5
Sydney Keaton and Kacie Gibbins combined for six hits and drove in four of Arkansas Tech's six runs as the Golden Suns fended off a late rally from Henderson State for a 6-5 victory.
Each produced run-scoring hits - a Keaton triple and a Gibbins double - as part of a three-run first inning. Keaton came up with a run-scoring single in the third while Gibbins pushed across Tech's sixth run of the game with a fifth-inning single.
Trailing 6-4 in the seventh, the Reddies plated one run and had runners on first and third before Bradi Basler induced a force out to lock down her third save of the season.