Lady Lions (15-34, 4-15) softball ended their season with a series sweep of conference rival UT-Arlington Mavericks (15-27, 5-15). The weekend sweep ended the season on a positive note as the team brought their win streak to four.
The weekend games were held on Friday, May 4 at 6 p.m. and Saturday, May 5 at 12 p.m. at North Oak Park.
Friday’s matchup was a battle of wills as the two teams spent much of the game tied with one run each. The Lady Lions scored first with a run from junior first baseman Ariell Van Hook. The Mavericks followed suit with a run of their own at the bottom of the fourth when senior infielder Courtney Zink scored off of a hit by freshman third baseman Hillary Steed.
“It was exciting, I felt like the game was at a pretty fast pace so I wasn’t tired or anything. I felt like I could have kept going all night,” said Lady Lions junior pitcher Kenna Terry. “We were all really into it. We were really determined to win this one because it’s the last weekend.”
That determination would take the Lady Lions into extra innings. It was not until the 11th inning that both teams managed to score another run. In the 12th inning, junior infielder Katie Doyle scored the winning run, capping off a long, tough fight.
“There was a lot of moments when we probably should have scored our base runners, but we were all just really out in front of the pitcher wrapping around the ball,” said Doyle. “It felt really good finally breaking not being able to score in the last inning, always being let down in extra innings. For our team, it was really good.”
On Saturday, the Lady Lions continued to build off of their momentum and earned a convincing 6-0 win over the Mavericks. The game saw five Lady Lion seniors finish their collegiate career at Southeastern.
“When all else fails, we have one goal and that’s to get those seniors a win. A win on their last day, give them something to remember,” said head coach Pete Langlois.
Senior pitcher Vicki Honeycutt pitched a one-hit shutout during her last game as a Lady Lion. The team scored its first run in the first inning when junior outfielder Michelle Duhe ran home off of a hit by senior catcher Meghan Gomez. The game stayed at 1-0 until the fifth inning where the Lady Lions scored five runs. The game ended after the Mavericks failed to score in the top of the seventh.
For Langlois, the last four wins of the season meant good things to come for the program.
“We’re still out there with three sophomores playing. We’re losing a great catcher, but we’re trying to show everybody in the recruiting cycle that we are pretty good,” said Langlois. “We’re going to have a nice summer knowing that if we can compete with Texas-Arlington, we can compete with anybody.”