Tulsa Takes 2-0 Win Over East Carolina to Advance in American Athletic Conference Tournament

Thursday, May 12

Collins Family Complex

4 p.m.

Tulsa

33-19

East Carolina

23-31

East Carolina

Tulsa

Photo by: Tyler Drabek/For the American Athletic Conference

Tulsa Takes 2-0 Win Over East Carolina to Advance in American Athletic Conference Tournament

5/12/2016 8:13:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Eric Hollier

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Championship Central | Tournament Bracket

TULSA, Okla. –– Tulsa sophomore Emily Watson pitched a shutout and freshman Julia Hollingsworth's third inning home run proved to be the only run the Golden Hurricane needed in a 2-0 win over East Carolina in quarterfinal action of the American Athletic Conference Championship Thursday afternoon at the Collins Family Softball Complex. Tulsa advanced to The American semifinals to face the No. 2 UCF Knights Friday at 3:30 p.m. CT.

In the first semifinal game, No. 1 seed USF will play Houston, a 5-4 extra inning winner over Memphis in Thursday's first quarterfinal contest. The USF-Houston game begins at 1 p.m. (CT).

Tulsa improved to 33-19 on the season with today's win, while East Carolina closed out the year with an overall 23-31 record.

Tulsa had two base runners on in each of the first two innings, but failed to get a run across the plate. However, in the bottom of the third inning with one out, Hollingsworth sent a 1-1 pitch over the centerfield fence for a 1-0 Hurricane lead.

Watson allowed one hit in each of the first three innings, and pitched out of a jam in the top of the fifth as the Pirates had runners on first and second before Watson struck out Sloan Bradford to retire the side. East Carolina put two more runners on base in the top of the sixth with one out, but Watson got the next two batters to fly out and keep the shutout alive.

The Hurricane added a run in the bottom of the sixth inning as Hollingsworth walked, stole second and moved to third on an infield grounder by Shelby Estocado. The next batter, Maddie Withee, hit a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield to score Hollingsworth and give Watson a two-run cushion heading into the top of the seventh.

"The run in the sixth definitely allowed us to exhale a little bit, because we were thinking about making a move," said Tulsa Head Coach John Bargfeldt. "If Emily falls behind a hitter you don't have to worry. She fell behind 2-0 against that first hitter in the sixth, and then she got two swings without contact and all of a sudden she is back in the count and then she strikes her out with a change-up."

Watson put down the first ECU batter in the seventh, before giving up a single to right center field, but then again popped up the last batters to put Tulsa into Friday's semifinals.

The Hurricane managed just three hits to East Carolina's six. Watson struck out 10 batters and recorded her fifth shutout of the season, while improving to 12-9.

"Emily has three weapons that she uses and they are all different speeds. Whenever we needed a good pitch we went with a ball that is moving and a change-up," said Bargfeldt. "She made some key pitches in some tough situations. There was a left-handed hitter tonight she faced that is a tough out to get, and Emily got the count to 3-2 and then she made a pitch that was in a good spot and the hitter had trouble squaring it up."

Lydie Ritchie (13-12) took the complete-game loss for the Pirates.

Tulsa faces a UCF team Friday that won all three home matchups against the Hurricane earlier this year. "We are confident from the stand point that we know we can play well, but obviously we'll be facing a really good opponent in UCF. They have a good defense and great speed in the outfield. We have had some great games over the last two years and it always seems to be a battle," added Bargfeldt.

Tulsa 2, East Carolina 0 (May 12, 2016 at Tulsa, Okla.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
East Carolina....... 000 000 0 - 0 6 0 (23-31)
Tulsa............... 001 001 X - 2 3 1 (33-19)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: East Carolina - RITCHIE, Lydia and MYCEK, Alex. Tulsa - WATSON, Emily and
HORNER, Catherine.
Win-WATSON, Emily(12-9) Loss-RITCHIE, Lydia(13-12) T-1:50 A-259
HR TLS - HOLLINGSWORTH, Julia (2).
Weather: 78 Sunny, Wind NNW @ 11 mph

QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
Thursday, May 12
Game 1 – No. 4 Houston 5, No. 5 Memphis 4 (10)
Game 2 – No. 2 UCF 3, No. 7 UConn 2
Game 3 – No. 3 Tulsa 2, No. 6 East Carolina 0

REMAINING TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Semifinals - Friday, May 13
(All games on The American Digital Network)
Game 4 – No. 4 Houston vs. No. 1 USF, 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT
Game 5 – No. 3 Tulsa vs. No. 2 UCF, 4:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. CT

Championship - Saturday, May 14
(Televised live on ESPN)
Game 6 – Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, Noon ET/11 a.m. CT