Lady Bison finish fourth in national tournament

The Southern Union Lady Bison lost their first game in the NJCAA national softball tournament last Wednesday in heartbreaking fashion.

The team that beat them went on to win the national championship.

SU bounced back after that initial loss to win its next four games, but the Lady Bison lost to Chattanooga State on Friday night, one game away from a shot at the finals.

That first game set the tone for SU. The Lady Bison held a 6-2 advantage against Angelina heading into the sixth inning. But two unearned runs fueled a four-run rally for Angelina as they knotted the score at 6-6.

Angelina broke the tie in the ninth inning on an RBI single by Taylor Harper. SU was the home team in the game but could not answer with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning.

The Lady Bison bounced back with a 7-2 win over no. 2 Southern Idaho, then followed that with wins over no. 1 Arizona Western (8-0), no. 12 North Central Texas (4-3) and no. 14 San Jacinto South (12-4) in subsequent elimination games.

That’s when the Bison train ran out of steam against Chattanooga State. SU fell behind 7-1 in that game before bowing out of the tournament in a 10-3 loss. 

A win in that game would have put SU among the tournament’s final three teams. The Bison would have needed three more wins from that point to claim the national title.

Offensively the Bison got good production throughout the tournament from the top of their order. Leadoff hitter Jourdan Foradori hit .368, scored eight runs and drove in six. Courtney Shields batted .435 with 8 RBI, Jessica Butterworth led the team with a .450 tournament average with two home runs and six RBI, and Kailey Boone went 6-for-21 in the tournament with two home runs and five RBI.

SU finishes the season with a record of 58-10, which included a 30-game winning streak.