TOURNAMENT CENTRAL | LIVE VIDEODURANT, Okla. – Fresh off its second-straight Great American Conference regular season championship, Southeastern now must hit the road for Bentonville, Ark., to defend its GAC Tournament Championship when it opens with Ouachita Baptist at 2 p.m. on May 1.
The Savage Storm wrapped up the regular season with a 35-15 overall record while adding a 28-11 mark in league play, using a double-header sweep of Henderson State on the season's final day to lock up the regular season title and the number one seed in the tournament.
SE won last year's tournament by posting a dramatic 3-2 win over Southwestern Oklahoma State in the first round and following that up with a 5-3 win over Arkansas-Monticello and then two-straight wins over HSU, 8-0 and then 6-2 for the tourney title.
This year's event has the added bonus of an automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region tournament for the winner.
The Storm split the regular season series with OBU way back on Feb. 22-23, winning game's one and four 4-2 and 3-2, but losing the middle two contests by scores of 1-0 and 10-9.
Mindy McElroy collected both wins and was saddled with one of the losses on the weekend.
McElroy closed out the year with a pair of wins over HSU on the final day of the regular season which lifted her record to 21-7 on the season with a 2.42 ERA. She also tossed four shutouts and 12 complete games.
Offensively,
Jessica Simmons has taken up the lead with a .430 batting average that is currently second in the conference, with 17 doubles, a triple, a home run, 19 RBI, 51 runs scored and a GAC best 31 stolen bases.
She is followed by a trio of hitters north of the .350 mark, with
Sydney Kramer at .39-0 with a team-high 47 RBI,
Laramie Beal at .384 with nine homers and 40 RBI and
Haley Strawn at .371 with 35 RBI.
A win over the Tigers in the first round will earn SE a trip to the winner's bracket to face the winner of fourth-seeded Harding versus fifth-seeded East Central at 8 p.m. on May 1. A loss will see them face the loser of that matchup at 8 p.m. at Memorial Park.
A win in the second round will put the Storm into 3 p.m. game on May 2 with the winner of that game earning a trip to the championship game without a loss in the double-elimination tournament. The championship game is scheduled for noon on May 3.
