BYU Softball took down Loyola Marymount in a winner-take-all final series, clinching their tenth straight conference championship.
If you’re looking for the most dominant program in BYU athletics, look no further than softball.
On Saturday, the Cougars clinched their tenth consecutive conference championship, but this one didn’t come quite so easily.
BYU entered the final weekend series in a tie at the top of the West Coast Conference with Loyola Marymount. Both teams sat at 11-1 in the WCC, and the two teams squared off in a winner-take-all series at BYU’s Gail Miller Field.
The first two games were originally scheduled as a doubleheader on Friday, but were postponed due to rain. That set up at tripleheader on Saturday to decide the conference champ. Turns out, they didn’t even need to play the third game.
The Cougars edged the Lions in the first game 3-2. BYU trailed most of the game after a second-inning two-run home run by LMU’s Alicia Brown. Video showed that the home run was actually foul, but with no video review in college softball the runs stood.
The game turned in the bottom of the sixth inning, when BYU’s Alexa Strid and Madison Merrell hit back-to-back homers to give the Cougars the one-run lead. LMU couldn’t score in their final at-bat, as the game ended on a highlight catch by BYU’s Caitlyn Alldredge:
BYU didn’t need late-game heroics in the second game. The Cougars jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, aided by two LMU errors, and never looked back. They clinched the conference title with a 8-0 run rule win.
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This hasn’t been the smoothest season for the Cougars. At the end of March BYU sat at 17-18, but finished the season on an 18-2 tear, including 10 straight victories.
The Cougars finish the season with a 35-20 record, 13-1 in the WCC. It’s their fifth straight WCC title and tenth straight conference championship overall. Most importantly, they’ve earned an automatic berth into their 14th straight NCAA Tournament.
Now the Cougars will wait to see where they’ll head for the NCAA Regionals. They’ll find out their location and opponents on Sunday night. BYU fans can catch the selection show at 8pm MDT on ESPN2.