The Pirate softball team made their second appearance in five years at the NCAA Regional and ended the season after falling to #5 UT Tyler and #13 Claremont Mudd Scripps on Friday.

Southwestern opened the season with a bang, working hard to score the first run of the game in the top of the first against UT Tyler. Karen Ramirez led off with a single up the middle and was brought to third on Ashleigh Scott's single down the left field line. Tessa Galloway, one of the Pirate's many power hitters, laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to score Ramirez, giving SU a 1-0 lead.

Tyler came back strong with two runs in response after two Pirate errors to take the lead 2-1 after the first inning. The Patriot defense just got stronger as the game went on, holding Southwestern to just one baserunner in the final six innings while scoring two more to arrive at the 4-1 final.

Ramirez had a strong game on both sides, going 2-3 from the plate with one run scored and made some outstanding plays at short to keep the Pirates within striking distance.

The loss dropped the Pirates into the consolation bracket and just one loss away from elimination. They took on Claremont Mudd Scripps in the final game of the day. After three scoreless innings it was once again Southwestern that jumped on the board first, this time with four runs in the bottom of the fourth. SU capitalized on three Athena errors with five hits in the inning to lead 4-0 and seemingly have the game in control.

CMS had other plans, however, and promptly responded with four runs in the top of the fifth. After a three up, three down inning by Southwestern in the fifth, Claremont pushed two more across the plate to lead 6-4 with just an inning and a half to play.

Southwestern pulled within one run in the bottom of the sixth. Linsay Biggers led off the inning with an infield single. Once again, Scott came through with an RBI single to pull SU within one, 7-6, with one inning remaining.

The Pirates weren't able to hold CMS scoreless in the seventh as the Athenas scored one more in the inning with two outs to go up 7-5. SU could not get anything going in the bottom half of the inning to close out the game with the 7-5 loss.

Scott was huge at the plate going 3-3 with two RBI's and one walk.

Kelsey Kingston garnered both losses, pitching all 13 innings.

Southwestern closes the year with a 34-13 overall record and says goodbye to two seniors, Abigail O'Connor and Jessica Bryant.