Unexpectedly, 7th seed Loyola has marched through the MVC Softball Championship. They beat Drake in the first round, Southern Illinois in the second round, and were three outs away from elimination against host Illinois State before a walk and back to back home runs gave Loyola a 4-2 lead. MVC Softball Pitcher of the Year Britney Gardner then struck out the side in the bottom of the 7th to secure the win.

Meanwhile, top seed Wichita State was knocked off by #4 seed Bradley. Loyola will face Bradley for the Championship tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.

You can watch here: http://www.valley-live.tv/

Edit: The Championship game will be televised on FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports Indiana, FOX Sports Kansas City, FOX College Sports, Comcast Chicago & ESPN3.

I was monitoring the game on my commute home. Glad to see us pull it out after having some errors cause us some problems.

Onward and upward!

_________________
Cigarboy sucks!

Just back from the MVC Softball Championship game where Loyola fell to Bradley 8-7. Loyola pitcher Brittany Gardner (whose arm had to be just about falling off after pitching in her fourth game in four days) could not get the calls on the outside corner and gave up a grand slam after two straight walks in the bottom of the fifth. Loyola got one back in the sixth (with the tying run tagged out on a rundown between third and home), and got the potential tying run on in the 7th, but a grounder to second ended it.

Great run by the Ramblers nonetheless, and there was a good crowd there supporting them.

Good on you for attending. I watched most of the game on TV. Looked like Brittany Gardner was just out of gas. Understandable when starting her fourth game in three days. Kind of crazy that we had no one else (evidently) who could pitch.

They made a heck of a run. Too bad they couldn't pull it off in the end.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart