BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- UPIKE softball's record-setting season came to a sorrowful close late in the night on Friday after the Bears lost its second game and was eliminated from the Mid-South Conference tournament.
The Bears finished the season at 26-22, tying the program record for wins in a season, a mark it set the year prior.
Game 1
The first game of the evening was a tough one for Bears fans, as Campbellsville sent UPIKE to the elimination bracket with a 8-1 defeat of the Bears.
The lone run for Pikeville came in from a solo home run from Jordan Gentry in the third inning.
Gentry finished an outstanding career for Pikeville on Friday. The Erlanger, Ky. senior was a three-year starter who racked up 156 hits in her career, including setting the single-season batting average record last season with a .406 average. She also hit 10 home runs and had 78 RBIs in her career.
Meanwhile, Campbellsville got started quickly, scoring five runs on seven hits in the first inning off starter Hannah Skaggs.
Pikeville then turned to Megan Claypoole who provided five solid innings of relief. The sophomore pitched the final five innings, giving up three runs while striking out five. She also helped tried to help herself as well as she could by being the only batter to record multiple hits for UPIKE in the game.
Game 2
The second game was a much more intense affair for the Bears. UPIKE had hope until the final out in a close 3-2 loss to Cumberlands (Ky.)
After falling behind 3-1, Pikeville got within one on an RBI single by Haley Osborne after Kelsey White's double in the gap.
It was the first sense of momentum the Bears had since the game's infancy stages when Gentry crafted a classic smallball run in the first.
Gentry reached on a walk in the game's first plate appearance, then advanced to second on a groundout, stole third on a delayed steal, then scored on another groundout by Emme Barker.
Cumberlands then scored its three runs in the third and fifth innings. UC got on the board with a single, stolen base and another single.
From there neither team was able to generate much until the fifth inning. The Patriots scored twice in the inning after a pair of errors by Pikeville.
Pikeville had the game-tying runner in scoring position in the top of the seventh, but were unable to score and lengthen the game.
Today's losses also marked the end of UPIKE's two graduate transfer's careers in Mercedes Boggs and Caitlynn Estevez.
Boggs hit .216 for the Bears in 48 games as the team's primary shortstop, but often found herself finding clutch hits when it mattered with 11 RBIs in only 74 at-bats.
Estevez appeared in six games for the Bears, two of which were scoreless outings with six strikeouts in 10.1 innings.
-UPIKE-
