Albany State drops NCAA regional opener

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Albany State was fully aware of the mountain it was tasked to climb at the NCAA Division II South Region Tournament. Three of the top six ranked teams in the South Region converged on Simpson Field for one of the stronger regionals.

At the top of the list, region host Palm Beach Atlantic, top seed in the tournament and the top-ranked team in the South Region, rudely welcomed Albany State to South Florida, defeating the Golden Rams 4-0 in their tournament opener Thursday night.

The SIAC champions (29-23) had their four-game winning streak snapped. They came into the game having won seven of their past nine games and 15 of 19.

“I thought we did what we needed to do,” Golden Rams head coach Amber Barker said. “We just had that one inning that didn’t go our way. We didn’t get the timely hitting, but we were right there in that ballgame. I’m proud of how we fought.”

Albany State takes on Valdosta State in an elimination game at 3:30 p.m. today. The Blazers dropped an 11-6 decision to Alabama-Huntsville in the tournament opener Thursday. The Golden Rams are 0-4 against Valdosta State this season, dropping a pair of home-and-home doubleheaders, including the season openers.

The Golden Rams could not get anything going Thursday against the host Sailfish. The team collectively managed just three hits, spread out over three different innings.

Jala Stewart singled in the second inning but was not advanced past first base. Lavette Tucker slammed a two-out double in the fourth but was stranded, and Jada Williams led off the sixth with a single but could not advance from there.

“I just knew I had to stand up at the plate, I’d been struggling,” Tucker said. “She pitched me a pitch that I wanted. She came in, and I knew I had to stay through the ball.”

Golden Rams pitcher Aryn McGowan had one bad inning, and it was costly. She gave up all four runs in the fifth inning, started by what looked like on replay to be a bad call on a force at home plate. But the runner was called safe and it opened the floodgates. Two walks, a hit batter and a single produced all the offense Palm Beach Atlantic needed.

“My plan was just to keep them off balance,” McGowan said.

Outside of that inning, McGowan threw five scoreless innings, scattering four hits.