by CANYON – Cameron’s record breaking season came to an end in six innings with Tarleton State beating the Aggies 11-3 in the NCAA South Central Regional final on Sunday afternoon.
Tarleton State will represent the Lone Star Conference in the NCAA Super Regional next weekend as CU’s season will stop with a 41-18 overall record.
“I’m proud of the team and our seniors,” said head coach Rodney DeLong. “It wasn’t the end we were hoping for but we set a new bar for the program.”
“Tarleton did a good job here and I think they will represent the league well at the Super Regional.”
The Aggies have six seniors and two that spent all four seasons in a Cameron uniform, Tara Martini and Misty Dooley. Martini will leave CU as its all-time RBI leader and is inside the top-3 in nearly every offensive category. Dooley is in the top-5 in most games played and is in the record books in runs scored and walks drawn.
Both Martini and Lauren Renneker will end the season tied in CU’s record book for homers in a season with 21. Renneker spent one season playing for her hometown team but had one of the best years in program history.
In the circle, Kelsey Watson (Comanche Nation of Oklahoma) tossed three innings in the loss but will go down as one of the top pitchers to wear a Cameron uniform with 19 wins this year and struck out 11 West Texas A&M batters on Saturday night in four innings of work.
Cameron will also graduate Emily Nix and Betsy Woodall who provided CU two years of support in the circle, field, or at the plate.
The TexAnns picked up a five run lead after three innings with two homers before the Aggies scored their only runs in the fourth. Paige Daino opened the inning with homer number-20 and RBI singles from Jessie Ingrum and Macy McKay closed the gap to two.
Tarleton State matched CU’s run total in the bottom half of the inning and after a scoreless fifth, they added three more to end CU’s season.
Sonora Zukerman was charged with the loss with 2 1/3 innings of work and four earned runs given up; Watson recorded the final nine outs with seven earned runs charged.
The NCAA Regional appearance for the Aggies the second in a row and the first time that the program appeared in the tournament finals.
