Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 CULLMAN, Ala. | The second-ranked University of Alabama in Huntsville softball team earned the program's 11th appearance in the title game of the Gulf South Conference Softball Championships with a 10-0 throttling of Delta State on Saturday before ultimately falling in an 11-7 slugfest to Valdosta State at Heritage Park.
 
UAH (43-9) will now await word on its status as an at-large selection to the NCAA tournament. The Chargers were ranked No. 1 in each of the regional polls, and the team will learn its fate on Monday morning at 9 a.m. when the tournament field is announced in a selection show on NCAA.com.
 
Creating no drama around who would meet the Blazers in the championship contest, the tournament's top seed scored in every other inning of the run-ruled shortened game, and the scoring started when Mary Kelley bounced back from a hitless showing on Saturday with the first two of seven RBI she would record on Championship Saturday as she belted a two-run homer to center in the first to produce a 2-0 advantage for the Chargers.
 
UAH added another pair in the bottom of the third to go in front 4-0, with Macie Couey scoring on an errant throw by the Delta State catcher as Brianna Sullivan stole second and Sullivan then racing home on a run-scoring single off the bat of Tyler Harrison later in the frame.
 
The run support was once again more than enough for Whitney Toler (12-2) who earned her third win of the tournament by tossing five innings of shutout softball while allowing just two hits and striking out a pair.
 
Toler's terrific performances this weekend in Cullman earned her a spot on the All-Tournament Team, and she was joined by teammates Kaitlyn Bannister, Couey, and Sullivan.
 
The Chargers ended the contest early with a big fifth inning as six runs scored, starting first with a two-RBI single from Kelley and a sacrifice fly by Bannister, and the game was capped off with a thunderous three-run blast to left by pinch hitter Nicole Bobrowski.
 
UAH needed just eight hits to score the 10 runs, and the team took advantage of four Delta State miscues to propel itself to the championship game.
 
Kelley's big game continued into the showdown with Valdosta State as the Chargers took a quick lead when she poked the ball through the right side of the Blazer infield to plate Couey to place UAH in front 1-0, but the lead would be short-lived unfortunately as the defending champions scored four times in the first to go in front 4-1.
 
With GSC Player of the Year Courtney Albritton leading the way, Valdosta State would eventually build up a 7-1 lead, but as has been the case all season long, the Chargers did not back down even when facing the big deficit and would eventually narrow the gap to just two runs.
 
Kelley knocked in another pair of runs with two outs in the fourth to make it 7-3, and the Chargers made it 7-5 in the fifth when Victoria Frith singled on a ball that landed between short and right. Couey then stepped up and appeared to hit a ball that would pull the Chargers within one, but the hard-hit liner caromed off of the VSU first baseman's mit, right to the second baseman who caught it for the third out of the inning.
 
The Blazers pushed the gap back to five though with a quick response including Albritton's second homer of the day that scored a pair of runs to give her five RBI on the contest.
 
UAH – who finished the contest outhitting VSU by a 15-14 margin – would score twice more in the top of the seventh, but the comeback effort would be cut short by the Blazers who earned their sixth consecutive league title.
 
Helping UAH earn that total of 15 hits, Frith led the way with four hits while Kelley had three and Couey, Sullivan, Bannister and McNeal each had a pair