Gulf Shores, Ala. – This afternoon the Columbia College softball team was back in action when they continued play at the 2017 Gulf Coast Invitational. The Cougars opened the day with a 5-4 win over 20^th ranked Central Methodist (Mo.) University in the semifinals of the tournament and then defeated 12^th ranked Campbellsville (Ky.) University in the championship game by a final score of 12-1. The Gulf Coast Invitational is a 40 team tournament that features some of the top teams in the NAIA and with the wins today the Cougars are the 2017 Gulf Coast Invitational Gold Bracket Champions.

In their first game against the Eagles, Central Methodist opened the scoring in the top of the second inning and held a 1-0 lead through two innings of play. The Cougars struggled to get anything going through the first two innings but settled into a groove in the third and went off for five runs between the third and the fourth. The Eagles responded with two runs of their own in the top of the fifth but Columbia held a 5-3 lead heading into the final inning of the game. Despite allowing Central Methodist to score in the seventh to cut the Cougars lead to just one run, Columbia was able to close them out in their final at-bats to improve to 5-0 on the weekend and advance to the championship game. Paxton Welch was the starting pitcher in this one allowing six hits and three earned runs while striking out eight batters in seven innings of work. Offensively, Columbia College was led by Theresa DeCosty and Carly Spalding who both went 2-4 with two runs scored.

In the championship game against the Tigers, the Cougars dominated from the first pitch of the contest. They opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when Carly Spalding started the game with an infield single and then later came around to score on an Allyson Metz RBI base hit to give Columbia a 1-0 lead. The Tigers bounced back in their half of the first and were able to tie the game at one but eight runs between the second and third innings gave the Cougars a 9-1 lead through three innings of play. Columbia added three more runs to their tally in the top of the fifth inning and closed out the Tigers down the final stretch to claim the 2017 Gulf Coast Invitational. Lauren McCroskie was the starting pitcher allowing just two hits and one earned run in five innings of work. In addition, Carly Spalding went 4-4 with three runs scored and Rachel Sullivan went 3-3 with three RBI's to round out the top performers for Columbia.

The Cougars are back in action on Friday, March 10^th when they host St. Louis College of Pharmacy in their first home series of the season. Columbia will play a double header against the Eutectics with the first game set to start at 2 p.m. at the Antimi Softball Complex.