NCAA Tournament: Houston Claims Austin Regional Championship

May 22, 2011

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	F	H	E
HOUSTON	0	1	0	0	0	2	1	4	9	0
24/25 LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	6	0

Pitching	IP	ER	K/BB	H
Amanda Crabtree (W, 21-8)	7.0	1	3/8	6

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Batting	H	AB	R	RBI	BB
Haley Outon	2	3	2	3	2
Melissa Gregson	2	4	1	1	0
Holly Anderson	1	3	0	0	1

AUSTIN, Texas - The University of Houston softball team needed just one game to defeat No. 24/25 Louisiana-Lafayette and claim the NCAA Austin Regional Championship, Sunday at McCombs Field, 4-1.

Houston (43-16) is now a perfect 2-0 in NCAA Regional Championship games as the Cougars advance to the NCAA Super Regionals for the second time in school history. With the possibility of ULL forcing an if-necessary second game on Sunday, Houston took care of business in the first game of the day to punch its ticket to the Super Regionals against Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., next weekend.

"We've talked about all week that we had a lot of work to do this weekend," head coach Kyla Holas said. "Now that we've finished that work here, it is such a good feeling and we're so happy for these girls that we get to keep playing. It's huge for this program."

Holas' alma mater, and the team that kept the Cougars out of its first Women's College World series in 2008, would not repeat the performance at the Austin Regional. Houston took down the Ragin' Cajuns for the second time over the weekend to go a perfect 3-0 in their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance.

Senior Amanda Crabtree (21-8) put forth another All-Region Team performance as the senior struck out eight and surrendered just one run. In 15.1 innings over the weekend, Crabtree allowed two earned runs and struck out 20.

The story of the day, however, came from battery mate, freshman catcher Haley Outon. Playing in her first NCAA Regional Championship just minutes from her hometown of Pflugerville, Texas, Outon shined. The Conference USA All-Freshman Team honoree homered twice and drilled in three RBI to power Houston at the plate.

Conference USA Player of the Year Melissa Gregson accounted for the other RBI in the 4-1 victory, when she singled in the top of the seventh to provide the final insurance run. She went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored in the championship game.

Opposite Crabtree in the circle for the second-straight ULL vs. Houston matchup was junior Ashley Brignac (32-7). Brignac was plagued by illegal pitch calls that the Cougars capitalized on. By game's end, Brignac was charged with eight illegal pitches, while Houston's offense charged her with four earned runs on nine hits.

In the Cajuns first at bat, a leadoff double followed by a wild pitch put a runner on third with nobody out as ULL threatened to give Houston its first deficit of the tournament in the first inning.

Ignoring the runner 90 feet from scoring, Crabtree struck out the side, including the nation's RBI leader, Christi Orgeron, to keep the opposition off the scoreboard. Outon thanked her by sending Brignac's 1-2 delivery over the right-center field wall, and for the third time in three NCAA Tournament games, Houston scored first. Her solo bomb was her first since the Pflugerville, Texas native went yard in back-to-back games against UTEP and Baylor last month.

Armed with the lead, Crabtree went back to work in the bottom half of the inning, racking up two more strikeouts. The first five outs of the game all came via a Crabtree strikeout.

Slappers Ashleigh Jones and Katy Beth Sherman smacked back-to-back singles to open the top of the third, but neither would score as Brignac threw into a pair of pop outs to end the Cougar threat. Houston moved into the bottom of the third hanging out to its 1-0 advantage.

Crabtree and her defense worked through a 1-2-3 bottom of the fourth, including Crabtree's sixth strikeout, to continue the one-run thriller. In the Cajuns' next trip to the plate, sophomore third baseman Holly Anderson hit redshirt junior second baseman Jennifer Klinkert to nab lead runner Natalie Fernandez for the first out of the inning. A choppy ground ball bounced over Crabtree's glove for an up the middle single, putting two runners on for Orgeron.

Orgeron dropped a bloop single in front of a diving Sherman in right field, loading the bases for first baseman Gabriele Bridges. Entering Sunday's matchup with 78 RBI on the year, Bridges sent a long sacrifice fly to right field to tie the game, 1-1. A ground out to sophomore shortstop Brooke Lathan ended the inning with runners on second and third, turning the game back over to Houston's lineup.

Outon ran with the opportunity. After Gregson singled to lead off the top of the sixth, Outon came to the plate with two outs on the board. Unfazed by the pressure of the situation, Outon crushed a two-run homer over the left field wall. Her fifth homer of the season marked the first multi-homerun game of her career.

One inning later, a one-out single for Anderson was replaced on the bases for sophomore designated player Reina Gaber's fielder's choice ground ball. Freshman Erin Martin came in to pinch run for Gaber and took off for home on Gregson's RBI single to put the final insurance run on the board for Houston in the top of the seventh.

With runners on the corners and only one out recorded, Jones and Sherman tracked down fly balls for the final outs of the game sending a sea of running Cougars onto the field in celebration.

UP NEXT
Houston now awaits the schedule of its NCAA Super Regional hosted by the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. Sitting right in front of Houston in the RPI projections (No. 21), Oklahoma State defeated Tennessee to advance to the Super Regionals. Houston defeated nationally Oklahoma State earlier this season, 3-2.

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