CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
TAMPA, Fla. – Emily Watson tossed all seven innings for the third-straight contest, utilizing a tournament-high 10 hits by the Tulsa offense to lift the No. 6 seed Golden Hurricane to its third-consecutive American Athletic Conference Softball Championship. Tulsa defeated top-seeded USF 4-1 on Saturday, securing the league’s automatic bid to the 2018 NCAA Softball Championship.
Watson earned tournament Most Outstanding Player honors, capping 21-straight innings with a 0.33 ERA. On Saturday, the senior scattered three hits with no runs earned, walking none and fanning eight. For the tournament, Watson finished with 36 strikeouts.
Morgan Neal went a team-best 3-for-4 with a run scored for Tulsa, with Haley Meinen tallying a pair of RBIs. Julia Hollingsworth scored two runs in the lead-off spot, going 1-for-2. The trio of field players joined Watson as Tulsa’s representatives on the All-Tournament Team.
For USF, Astin Donovan laced two hits with a run scored, with Lindsey Devitt driving in the lone Bull RBI on a double.
USF opted to intentionally walk and load the bases with one out in the first, but the gamble went in favor of the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa pushed a single run across with a hit from Shannon Hughes, but USF limited the damage by catching the second runner at home.
In the top of the third, the Bulls caught the lead runner for the first out at third, but Tulsa kept grinding. Using a double by Shelby Estocado and corresponding RBI single by Meinen, the Golden Hurricane upped the advantage to 3-0. New USF pitcher Jojo McGill was able to close the threat with a swinging strikeout.
The Bull bats came alive in the fourth. Donovan belted a lead-off single, advancing to third on an error, and reached home in the next at-bat with a sacrifice fly from Devitt.
Tulsa inched ahead another run in the fifth on a sacrifice hit by Meinen to up the score to 4-1, scoring Julia Hollingsworth from third. The three-run padding was all the Golden Hurricane needed, as Watson sat eight of the final nine USF batters to seal the title.
Watson closes her American Tournament career as the event’s all-time strikeout leader with 68 in 42 innings pitched, permitting just one earned run. The senior is a two-time tournament Most Outstanding Player and earned the conference’s softball Scholar-Athlete award earlier this spring.
Several American squads in addition to Tulsa will await their NCAA Championship fate on Sunday night, when ESPN2 airs the Division I Selection Show at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT.
2018 American Athletic Conference Softball Championship
All-Tournament Team
Jill Stockley, P, UConn
Arielle James, 2B, Houston
Tierrah Williams, DP, Houston
Kyler Trosclair Klatt, SS, Memphis
Brooke Lee, 2B, Memphis
Macy Cook, C, USF
Lindsey Devitt, 2B, USF
Lauren Evans, 1B, USF
Julia Hollingsworth, OF, Tulsa
Haley Meinen, LF, Tulsa
Morgan Neal, 2B, Tulsa
Emily Watson, P, Tulsa
Most Outstanding Player
Emily Watson, Tulsa