BENTONVILLE, Ark. – 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.
Harding advances to take on No. 2 seed Southern Nazarene Friday at 2:30 p.m., at the Tiger Athletic Complex. With the new tournament format, Southern Nazarene had a double-bye and will play its first game of the tournament Friday.
Harding, the No. 3 seed, improves to 34-17 on the season. It is the third time the Lady Bisons have been the No. 3 seed in the tournament.
Southeastern Oklahoma, the No. 6 seed, ends its season with a 26-28 overall record. The Savage Storm advanced to the quarterfinals after beating No. 7 seed Arkansas-Monticello 9-4 earlier Thursday afternoon.
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.
Macy Ham and Chelsea Blankenship both had two hits in the game. Blankenship drove in two.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Southeastern Oklahoma got the scoring started in the second on a solo homerun my Emily Simmons.
Harding got on the board in the fourth scoring four runs on four hits and a Southeastern Oklahoma error. Jordan Cabana and Chelsea Blankenship scored the first two runs of the inning for Harding on a Savage Storm error. Tori Turner had an RBI groundout and Tedi Nunn singled in the final run of the inning.
The Lady Bisons made it 6-1 in the fifth on a two RBI single by Chelsea Blankenship. Jordan Cabana and Mariana Caro both scored for Harding.
GAME NOTES
- Riley Price picked up her 200th career strikeout in the game.
- Harding outhit Southeastern Oklahoma 9-4.
- The Lady Bisons had three stolen bases in the game.
- Reese Taylor received the loss for Southeastern Oklahoma and falls to 6-11 on the season. She went four innings, gave up eight hits and two earned runs.
- The Savage Storm's four hits all came by different players.
