The Heartland Conference

Three Heartland Conference softball players have been named to the 2010 All-South Central Region Team.  The team was released on Wednesday, May 15.  The Heartland Conference had two women on the first team, both St Edward's players and one women from Incarnate Word on the second team.

To view the complete team click here.

The St. Mary's University softball team will head to its ninth NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament this week. The eighth seeded Rattlers (34-19 overall) will face top seeded Midwestern State in the first round of the tournament on Friday at noon.

St. Mary's enters the tournament on a roll, having won its last six games, including an 8-7 decision over St. Edward's University in the Heartland Conference Tournament Championship game. Midwestern State University was the Lone Star Conference regular season champion. MSU is currently ranked third in the nation in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll and has a 50-8 record.

The 2010 Heartland Conference Softball All-Conference team was released by the conference office on May 2.  The conference's head softball coaches voted on the team, which consist of 27 players, a player of the year, pitcher of the year, newcomer of the year, freshman of the year, and coach of the year.

Alex Garcia's bases-loaded walk with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning scored the winning run and lifted St. Mary's University to a 7-6 victory over St. Edward's University in the 2010 Heartland Conference Softball Tournament, played Saturday afternoon at Diane Daniels Field.

The Rattlers led 6-2 after the fourth inning, but the Hilltoppers rallied for four runs over the next two innings, tying the game at 6-6, entering the seventh inning. Kelly Baker (Jr., Arlington, Texas) led off the inning by walking and Christina Rodriguez (Fr., San Antonio) followed with a walk of her own. The runners moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt. SEU pitcher Paige Sandahl then walked Chelsea Wenske (Jr., Shiner) to load the bases. After Sarah Perez (Fr., San Marcos, Texas) struck out, Garcia (Fr., San Antonio) stepped up to the plate. Garcia fell behind in the 1-2, and then took three straight pitches out of the zone to force home the game-winning run.