KINGSVILLE, Texas – Junior Roxy Chapa (McAllen, Texas) tied a program record with her 11th home run of the season, a seventh inning solo blast, but the Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team suffered an 8-2 defeat at the hands of the No. 11 West Texas A&M Lady Buffs on Friday night at Hubert Field in Kingsville, Texas.
TAMUK's record now stands at 24-24 and they're 11-14 in the Lone Star Conference. WT is 35-6 and 18-3 in LSC play. With Texas Woman's University sweeping a doubleheader with UT Permian Basin, the Javs are now 2 games out of the final spot in the LSC Tournament.
Chapa's round-tripper ties her with Marquesha Torres, who knocked out 11 bombs in 2007 and that mark was matched by Adela Gomez in 2013. In her freshman season, Chapa nearly reached that total, finishing with 10 homers. The McAllen native already owns the program record for home runs in a career with 29.
Through four innings, the only scoring had been provided by WT's Alyx Cordell, whose second inning single scored Shayne Starkey with the game's first run. Kingsville had a chance to answer in their half of the second, when they loaded the bases on three straight singles to begin the inning, but Kilee Halbert (18-5) induced a fielder's choice, a strikeout and a groundout to wiggle out of trouble. Heading into the fifth, the squads had combined for 11 hits but only one run.
Kourtney Coveney started the top of the fifth with a solo homer. Four batters later, the Lady Buffs had runners on first and third with two outs when consecutive singles by Allie Smith and Stevie McLemore each drove in a run and Cordell drew a walk to load the bases. Ashley Hardin followed with a grand slam, pushing WT's lead to 8-0.
Kingsville's first run crossed the plate a half-inning later thanks to a two-out knock by freshman Anastasia Leibas (Del Valle, Texas), which scored freshman Loren Kelly (Rockport, Texas). The final run of the night came on Chapa's dinger.
On Saturday, the Javs and Lady Buffs will play a doubleheader with game one beginning at 1 p.m. The Javelinas will hold their Senior Day ceremonies after game two. To keep up with the Javelinas all season long, visit Javelinaathletics.com, follow @TAMUKSB on Twitter, like /JavelinaSports on Facebook and subscribe to the Javelina athletics YouTube channel.
