FAU Owls Clinch AAC Softball Regular Season Title
The Buzz was palpable Sunday afternoon at Joan Joyce field, as the Owls took the field with a chance to clinch their first AAC regular season title and first regular season title overall since 2018.
Doing what they do best, backed behind a mindset of never giving up, the Owls put up 4 runs in the 6th inning after lulling the Tulsa bats to sleep all day, powering past the Golden Hurricane 6-2 and clinching a share of the Regular season AAC title. The Owls powered through games all year, and after the game Coach Jordan Clark talked about her teams never give up mentality and how today was another example of that.
“Our team theme this year is fight club, and we talk about throwing the first punch and throwing the last punch and we threw the first punch with the 2 runs, and Tulsa punched back and we knew that we were going to finish it I just always tell them do you wanna do it now, or do you want to walk it off. So, for them to come up in the 6th, shoutout to Meg Moll, her role has not been easy. She transferred to us this year and she has worked while she waited, and good things happen to great people and for her to get that home run and make a statement on senior day was just priceless,” Clark said.
The Owls did indeed throw the first punch in this one, as in the second Kam Jackson reached on a single, after her Trinity Schlotterbeck reached on an error, and thanks to some heads-up base running Jackson advanced from 1st to 3rd on a throwing error. Kiley Channell scored her with a timely single to right 2 batters later and the Owls jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead.
FAU was capitalizing on early mistakes from Tulsa, as when it seemed like the Golden Hurricane wrapped up the inning on a double play just 2 batters later, the throw to first base on the back half of double play sailed into foul territory. Schlotterbeck was able to score on the throwing miscue, which made it 2-0 Owls heading into the bottom of the second inning.
Schlotterbeck was creating opportunities on the base path and was not giving up any opportunities on the mound early on, as through the first 3 innings she struck out 2 and allowed no hits.
Tulsa wasn’t going down without a fight however, as in the 4th their bats woke up briefly. The inning started when Schlotterbeck was unable to make a tough play to first base, which resulted in an E1 and a lead off base runner in the speedy Haley Morgan for Tulsa. She retired the next 2 batters and almost escaped the jam, however the next 2 batters Maci Cole and Annica Anderson broke through with singles down the right field line, which each plated a run and left the game tied at 2 heading into the 4th.
Ainsley Lambert came on in the 5th and continued her dominance of the Tulsa bats, as she kept them at bay until the Owls could break through in the 6th inning. After yesterday’s game Coach Clark mentioned when pitching is dominant it allows for the offense to breathe, and after 3 more shutdown innings today Lambert gave her thoughts on that.
“I think our hitters just know that when I go in, I’m going to give them an opportunity, I’m going to keep it within winning. Honestly, this offense can win any ballgame, if we’re in the bottom of the 7th and we’re down 6 runs, I have no doubt because I know this offense can put it together, and so me going in there I know I just being an even keel and give them a chance to breathe, and okay we can take our hacks in the box, Ainsley’s on the mound she’s gonna help us out,” Lambert said.
It wouldn’t be a rally unless Kam Jackson was involved and in the 6th, she led off with a double, her second hit of the day, and 5th of the series, which set the table for the Owls big inning. Schlotterbeck followed her up with a walk, which set the Owls up with 2 on nobody out for Kiley Channell. She delivered for the second time today, depositing a double into the right field gap scoring Jackson and giving the Owls a 3-2 lead, which opened up the floodgates. The very next batter was Megan Moll who absolutely crushed a 3 run homerun to left center field, which made it 6-2 and made it very clear a championship could be brewing in paradise.
Lambert was lights out yesterday, and nothing changed today, as in the 7th inning she set down Tulsa 1-2-3 with 2 strikeouts, shutting the door on Tulsa and opening the door for FAUs championship celebrations.
FAU has some time to celebrate before heading to Wichita for the AAC tournament, however Ainsley Lambert made it clear what her expectations are heading into the postseason.
“Our expectation is that we’re going to regionals and we’re gonna upset somebody in regionals. That’s my goal and that’s what I want to do, I want to upset somebody at regionals, and I want to upset them at home, and so going into the conference tournament we’re going to keep being who we are and be authentically the Owls, and we’re going to do what we do best. That’s what’s going to help us either win a conference tournament, or not… but we’re going to regionals, and we’re going to make a statement and show people who the Owls are,” Lambert said.
That’s 41 wins, an AAC regular season title, and a whole bunch of memories made along the way as the Owls head into postseason play with a double bye clinched. With the AAC tournament on deck, Coach Clark knows the team still has work to do to prepare for what’s ahead.
“I like where we are at as a team, obviously we want to continue to work on our hitting and be able to execute and move runners. I thought our pitching staff did a great job with Tulsa’s hitters this weekend; it was nice to see that we were able to do things on both sides of the ball. Obviously defensively we finished stronger games 2 and game 3 than we started game 1, pitching all weekend long I thought was phenomenal, we got to see all of our pitchers except for 1, and offensively we did what we needed to do, so we just have to continue being scrappy, continuing to play our game, and being a really tough out,” Coach Clark said.
The Owls will have a few days to fine tune all sides of the ball, as they are back in action next Friday at 2:30 pm, and will face off against either South Florida, Tulsa, UTSA, or Wichita State.