WICHITA, Kan. – Kailey Gamble’s three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning sent North Texas to the semifinal round of the American Athletic Conference Championship with a 9-1 win against East Carolina Thursday afternoon at Wilkins Stadium.
The Mean Green (32-23) advance to face No. 2-seeded Charlotte in a semifinal game Friday at 1 p.m. ET/noon CT.
Gamble’s blast came with two outs in the sixth inning and gave the Mean Green the eight-run margin to end the game. She went 2-for-3 with four RBIs to lead a North Texas lineup that laced 12 hits against the Pirates.
Eight of the nine starters in the North Texas lineup had at least one hit, while the top four batters in the order were a combined 8-for-14 with a double, a triple and a home run.
The Mean Green took the lead in the bottom of the first inning after Mordan Medford led off with a base hit and Molly Rainey stroked a double to center. Medford came home on Cierra Simon’s sacrifice fly before Gamble delivered an RBI single to score Rainey and give North Texas a 2-1 lead.
North Texas tacked on two more in the bottom of the second on Simon’s two run single to build a 4-1 lead. Simon went on to smack a leadoff triple to right to start the fifth inning before she came home on Mikayla Smith’s sacrifice fly to make it 5-1.
After Medford drove home Lexi Cobb to start the seventh inning, Rainey’s bunt single put two runners on for Gamble, who worked a full count before drilling her eighth pitch of the at bat over the rightfield fence to end the game.
East Carolina had gained an early lead when Taylor Woodring hit a two-out solo home run in the top of the first inning.
That turned out be one of only two hits allowed by Mean Green pitcher Skylar Savage, who struck out three and walked two in six innings to improve to 10-9 on the year.
The latest information on the 2024 American Softball Championship can be found on the conference’s Championship Central site.
2024 AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
May 8-11 | Wilkins Stadium | Wichita, Kansas
First Round – Wednesday, May 8
Game 1 No. 7 East Carolina 4, No. 6 UAB 0
Game 2 No. 3 North Texas 7, No. 10 Memphis 1
Game 3 No. 5 Tulsa 2, No. 8 South Florida 1
Game 4 No. 4 Wichita State 13, No. 9 UTSA 0 (five innings)
Second Round – Thursday, May 9 | ESPN+
Game 5 North Texas 9, East Carolina 1
Game 6 Tulsa (30-22) vs. Wichita State (26-21) 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT
Semifinals – Friday, May 10 | ESPN+
Game 7 North Texas (32-23) vs. No. 2 Charlotte (36-16) 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT
Game 8 Game 6 winner vs. No. 1 Florida Atlantic (41-13) 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT
Championship Game – Saturday, May 11 | ESPN2
Game 9 Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner Noon ET/11 a.m. CT
