estern had two chants before the bottom of the seventh inning against Tennessee-Martin in the title game of the Western Kentucky Invitational on Sunday.
“Now or never! Do or die!”
They were trailing 2-1 and needed a run to force an extra-inning or two to win.
The Lady Toppers would force the eighth-inning before losing 4-3.
“I don’t have to say much,” Coach Rachel Lawson said. “They are a pretty competitive team.”
Western finished the weekend 4-2 to move its record to 7-5. The Lady Toppers’ two losses were to Tennessee-Martin in the championship and Buffalo in the round-robin Friday night.
In the championship game, with runners on the corners in the seventh inning, sophomore outfielder Alana Towns dropped a base hit over first base to score senior outfielder Becky Minnis.
The Lady Toppers had a chance to win the game with the bases loaded and senior second baseman Shelly Floyd at the plate.
Floyd, who hit a grand slam in the round-robin game on Saturday game against Tennessee-Martin, couldn’t repeat the feat. A ground out sent the game into the eighth inning.
The game went into an international tie-breaker. Each inning, the team at bat began with a runner on second base.
Tennessee-Martin scored when center fielder Jennifer Young tagged up from third base on a Kristin Runyan fly-out to right field.
The Lady Toppers had a chance to tie in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Junior catcher Sam Young, who was two-for-two in the game, was batting.
With two outs, junior shortstop Bailey Rolfs was thrown out while trying to steal second base.
“The idea was if Bailey gets to second, Sam can hit her in,” Lawson said, “and if she doesn’t, Sam leads off (the seventh inning.)”
Young led off the seventh with a walk. Minnis, running for Young, later scored the tying run.
Junior outfielder/catcher Jen Ballance went two-for-four in the championship game. She scored the first Lady Topper run stealing home on a wild pitch in the first inning.
“We felt like we could have done it,” Ballance said.
Junior pitcher Adrienne Lathrop, Ballance and Young were named to the All-Tournament team.
Freshman pitcher Ashton Strode went the full eight innings. She gave up only three earned runs and recorded nine strikeouts.
In their semifinal game, the Lady Toppers defeated Austin Peay 5-4. A three-run home run by Brianna Venable in the sixth threatened Western’s lead.
Lathrop then relieved winning-pitcher senior Ashley Schwartz.
The Lady Toppers knocked five home runs in four games of round-robin play Friday and Saturday to earn the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
Reach Mike Duncan at sports@wkuherald.com.
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