ADA, Okla. – SWOSU Softball dropped all four games of a Great American Conference series at East Central this weekend, but the Bulldogs are still headed to the postseason for the first time in six years after securing a spot in the 2019 GAC Tournament.
 
By virtue of other results around the conference, the Bulldogs finished seventh in the GAC regular season standings at 20-24 and they've earned the No. 7-seed in the GAC Tournament, which begins on Wednesday in Bentonville, Arkansas.
 
ECU 11, SWOSU 10
 
The high-scoring series opener went to the Tigers after they scored the final five runs in the contest to overcome SWOSU's 10-6 lead. SWOSU scored the first two runs of the game on solo home runs from Amanda Moreno and Hannah Franklin in the top of the first, but ECU quickly countered with two homers of their own and scored four runs in the first before building a 6-2 lead in the second.
 
SWOSU did the bulk of their offensive damage with eight runs on three hits while benefiting from one error by the Tigers. The biggest hit of the inning came from Moreno, who hit a two-run home run for her second dinger of the game. From that point, the Dawgs were kept off the scoreboard while ECU scored four runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to overcome the SWOSU advantage.
 
Sidney Kirk (0-2) took the loss after allowing five runs on eight hits with two walks in 3.0 innings of action.
 
ECU 10, SWOSU 2 (6 inn.)
 
The Bulldogs were held to just four hits in the series finale, including RBI singles Hannah Morris in the third and Alisa Friesen in the fifth. SWOSU held the Tigers down for the first three innings and went to the fourth tied 1-1 before ECU plated five runs in the fourth and two apiece in the fifth and sixth to invoke the eight-run rule.
 
Kaitlyn Donaldson (5-14) was the pitcher of record after allowing five runs on eight hits in the opening 3.1 innings of action.