Bentonville, Ark. - The Southwest Baptist University softball team opened up their 2012 season in Bentonville, Arkansas for the Five State Classic Tournament. The Bearcats came away from the tournament with victories over Rockhurst University and Oklahoma Panhandle State University and played tough games against the rest of their competition.

SBU opened up play on Friday, Februrary against University of Arkansas-Monticello, with the Bearcats dropping the contest 0-8. SBU then took on University of Illinois Springfield later that day, in a close extra innings battle. The Bearcats were the first one's to strike in the top of the 1st inning when Rhiannon Mendez doubled, bringing home Kassy Williamson to put SBU up 1-0. Illinois Springfield quickly responded in the bottom of half of the inning to tie the game up at 1-1. However, SBU responded nicely in the top of 2nd inning off of rbi singles by Addie Murders and Jessica Colliver to give SBU a 3-1 lead. Both teams would continue to put up runs, including a homerun by Mendez, scoring runs in the 4th, 5th, and 7th innings before eventually forcing extra innings. In the top of the 9th, Taylor Atwood had an rbi double to put SBU up 9-8, but Illinois Springfield responded in the bottom of the 9th to take the game 10-9.

In the second day of action, SBU came away with two victories over Rockhurst University and Oklahoma Panhandle State. In the first game of the day against Oklahoma Panhandle State, the Bearcats had a complete game victory pitched by Colliver. After falling down 1-0 early, the Bearcats responded in the bottom of the second innning with three runs, an rbi by BreAnn Proctor and two runs off of an Oklahoma Panhandle State error. Oklahoma Panhalde State would get one run back in the top of the third before SBU's Alex Abernathy hit a homerun in the bottom half of the inning, coupled with another Oklahoma Panhandle State error, to put SBU up 5-2. The Bearcats would add another run in the bottom of the 5th off of an Autumn Lamle homerun and would hold on for the 6-5 victory.

In the second game of the day the pitchers shined for the Bearcats in a 1-0 victory over Rockhurst. Alexa Harvey pitched 4 solid innings for the Bearcats, allowing two hits while striking out four, and Abernathy would pitch the final 3 innings to pick up the save in the combined shutout victory. The deciding run came for the Bearcats in the bottom of the 4th inning off of an rbi double by Abernathy.

In the final day of the tournament, the Bearcats faced Southwest Oklahoma State University and University of Missouri-St. Louis, but were unable to come away with a victory in either contest. After losing the first game 0-6 to Southwest Oklahoma State, the Bearcats fought hard against Missouri-St. Louis. After going down 3-0, the Bearcats got on the scoreboard with an rbi double from Murders. Missouri-St. Louis added two more runs in the next two innings, but SBU would continue to fight. In the bottom of 5th Mendez hit a single bringing home Murders and Williamson, but it wasn't enough as the Bearcats dropped the final game of the tournament 3-5.

"Our team demonstrated how we are capable of performing on day 2 of the tournament," head coach Tammy Ikerd commented. "Now we just need to find consistency and fine tune some aspects of both our offensive and defensive game.”

SBU will be back in action on Friday, March 2 when they travel to Goodwell, Oklahoma for the Oklahoma Panhandle Tournament. The Bearcats will take on Hillsdale College at 11:00 a.m., followed by a match-up with the host school Oklahoma Panhandle State at 3:00 p.m.