West Florida stays unbeaten
By By Austin Bishop/EMG regional sports director
May 4, 2003
The dream is still alive for the Mississippi University for Women, but the Blues will have to do a little extra work on Sunday in order to live it out.
MUW won its first two games in the Gulf South Conference Tournament and took a lead late in the tournament's final game of the night on Saturday, only to have the University of West Florida rally to take a 4-3 win.
The victory makes UWF the only undefeated team remaining in the eight-team, double-elimination tournament being played at Meridian's Northeast Park for the sixth consecutive season.
West Florida, now 47-7, takes on Valdosta State at 10 a.m., while MUW faces Alabama-Huntsville in an elimination game.
If UWF wins, then the championship game will be at noon, with an if necessary game to follow at 2 p.m. If Valdosta wins, then all three teams remaining in the tournament will have one loss each. One team will receive a bye to the finals at 2 p.m., with the other two squads playing an elimination game at noon.
MUW, which found out earlier this year that its athletic programs would be shut down at the end of the season, put together four of its five hits in the top of the fifth inning to take a 2-1 lead over the Argonauts of West Florida. Meredith Murrah doubled with one out for MUW and Rachel Breaux followed with a single. After a walk loaded the bases, Heather Ford tied the game at 1-1 with a single to left. After a foul out to the catcher, Cassie Cocker put the Blues up by a run with a hard single off the third baseman's glove.
That lead didn't last long, however.
Paige Tramell led off the bottom of the inning by reaching on an error and Allison Milliman followed that with a two-run homer just over the center field fence. The Argos picked up a big insurance run later in the inning.
The Blues, now 30-16 on the season, picked up its third run in the top of the sixth inning thanks to a walk, hit batter, wild pitch and error.
In a pair of elimination games played just prior to the MUW-West Florida game, Alabama-Huntsville beat Arkansas-Monticello 4-2 and Valdosta State used shutout pitching by Brooke King to knock off Southern Arkansas 5-0.
