SUWANEE, Ga. - The SCAC Softball Tournament is set with Birmingham-Southern earning the top seed out of the Eastern Division and Trinity claiming the top spot out of the West. Southwestern and Rhodes will open up the tournament Friday at noon with the winner advancing to face Birmingham-Southern. Millsaps and Austin College will follow with the winner advancing to face Trinity.

- AROUND THE SCAC -

Austin College went 3-3 last week, splitting a series with Texas Lutheran on Tuesday, winning 4-3 and falling 3-1, before splitting their four game series with Hendrix and earning a spot in the SCAC Tournament with a dramatic 5-4 walk-off victory on Sunday. The ‘Roos fell in game one 7-4 before coming back with a big 10-2 win on Saturday, and after losing 4-2 in game one on Sunday, the ‘Roos rallied past the Warriors and got a game-winning sacrifice fly from Heather Farquhar to earn the victory and the three seed in the SCAC West. Farquhar had a huge week at the plate, hitting .444 with 10 RBI, and Charlotte Trudell hit .364 with six runs scored. Chelsea Delaney added a .353 average for the week. Amber Pemberton picked up all three victories on the mound, appearing in all six games and tossing two complete games with a 2.78 ERA for the week.
 
Birmingham-Southern shut out Sewanee in all four games, all in five innings, this week on the road. The Panthers out-scored the Tigers 51-0 in 20 innings, recording nine doubles, three triples, and four home runs. BSC also committed only one error. The Panthers will play a make-up game against LaGrange on Tuesday before entering the SCAC Championship this weekend as the top seed in the East.

Centre went 2-4 on the week splitting a doubleheader with Mount St. Joseph Wednesday and then dropping three of four against Rhodes over the weekend. The Colonels fell 7-3 and won 8-0 against the Lions heading into the weekend's series against Rhodes, which would determine the three seed for the conference tournament. After splitting the Saturday doubleheader with a 3-2 defeat and a 7-4 win, Centre dropped both games Sunday 6-3 and 10-3 to end its season with a 15-22 overall record and 6-10 mark in the league.
 
Dallas (9-27, 1-15 SCAC) did not play last week. The Crusaders ended its 2012 campaign with an overall record of 9-27, 1-15 in its first year of SCAC action.

Hendrix ended their season with a 3-3 record. Hendrix split their final home games of the year against Ozarks on Tuesday. Junior pitcher Ashley Halbert threw her school record sixth shutout of the year, allowing three hits  in a 1-0 win. Junior third baseman Paula Burr singled in freshman shortstop Michaela Larabee in the sixth for the only run of the game. Ozarks took the second game 6-3. The Warriors entered the four-game series at Austin College needing to win three to make the SCAC Tournament. Hendrix took game one 7-4 with senior Trace Grinnell going 4-for-4 with two RBI. The host 'Roos took the second game 10-2. On Sunday, Hendrix won the opener 4-2, but lost 5-4 on a walk-off sacrifice fly in game two. Senior first baseman Brittiny Casteen drove in three runs with two hits in the first game and Halbert went 3-for-3 with two home runs, a double, three RBI and three runs scored in the nightcap. Sunday marked the final games in the career of three seniors - Grinnell, Casteen and Kaylen Stevenson.

Millsaps picked up two wins to close the regular season during the week as they defeated the Centenary Ladies by scores of 7-0 and 7-1. The Majors have been on fire down the homestretch as they finish the regular season winning 12 of their last 14 games to get themselves back to .500 at 18-18. They will take the weekend off as they prepare for the SCAC Tournament in Jackson, Tennessee this weekend. Millsaps will be playing in the 2 p.m. game, the second game of the tournament and they will take on Austin College. If the Majors win, they will play the No. 1 team in the West, the Trinity Tigers at 6 p.m. If they lose, they will come back the next day and take on the loser of Game One at 10 p.m.

Rhodes earned the third seed out of the Eastern Division after picking up three of four games over Centre this past weekend. The Lynx were led by a pair of underclassmen. Sophomore Jessica Brown was brilliant at the plate hitting .429 over the weekend going 6-for-14 with four RBIs and five runs scored. Freshman Forrest Skelton was outstanding in the circle picking up two wins and a save posting an ERA of 1.39 with 13 strikeouts, allowing just three earned runs in 15.1 innings of work.

Sewanee dropped all four games to Birmingham-Southern this past weekend. Sewanee was shutout all four games and outscored by over 10 runs each contest. In total, Sewanee finished 2012 with a 5-22 overall record and an 0-16 mark in conference play. Individually, freshman Kayla Sewell wrapped up her first year with a team-best .473 average. Sewell also led the Tigers in hits, runs, doubles, triples, home runs, RBIs and total bases.

Southwestern entered the weekend in first place and needed to win two of four to take first place into the post season. Trinity was determined to snatch first place out of SU's grasp and won three of four to move Southwestern into second place in the west. SU couldn't get things going offensively on day one while Trinity cruised to two wins, 8-0 and 5-1. On day two Southwestern's bats came back to life, out-hitting Trinity 10-5 in game one, but the Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth to steal the lead and beat SU 3-2.  Trinity started strong again in the final game of the series but it was Southwestern that had the final say to win 5-2. Tessa Galloway led offensively for the Pirates, going 5-10 from the plate with two doubles, one walk and one run.  Kaitlyn Pavlicek went 1-1 from the mound with a 1.64 ERA, allowing five runs, two earned on 12 hits. Lyndsy Maus garnered two losses on the weekend, allowing 13 runs on 21 hits. Southwestern moves to 23-16 on the year and 12-5 in the SCAC. They will enter as the #2 seed in the conference tournament next weekend, playing the opening game of the tournament on Friday at noon against #3 east seed, Rhodes.

Trinity won its first SCAC West Division title since the 2008 season by beating Southwestern University in three of four games over the final weekend of the regular season. The Tigers went into the weekend trailing Southwestern by one game, so needed to win three times to secure the West’s top seed in the tournament. Trinity outscored Southwestern 13-1 on the first day, then edged the Pirates 3-2 in the opening game on Sunday, clinching the bye in next weekend’s SCAC Tournament. Karen MacPherson tied Trinity’s all-time record in hits on Sunday, adding two more to her career total, and tying Jamie Williams (2006-09) for the Tiger record. MacPherson also broke Trinity’s career records for at-bats. Megan Russell broke a tie for Trinity’s career RBI record as well, driving in the game-winning run in game one on Sunday afternoon. Russell broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning of the opening game, leading to the division-clinching victory. After a first-round bye in the SCAC Tournament, Trinity will face the winner of Millsaps College and Austin College on Friday at 6:00 p.m. The Tigers advanced to the SCAC Championship game against DePauw last year. Trinity has not won the conference title since 2007.

To view the entire SCAC Fastpitch Weekly for week ten, click here.