KINGSVILLE, Texas – Spurred on by a nine-run third inning in which they took advantage of three errors by the opposition and an excellent relief outing from freshman Saidi Castillo (Kingsville, Texas) the Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team defeated the Cameron Aggies 12-8 on Thursday night in the first game of the South Central Super Regional at Hubert Field in Kingsville, Texas.
The Javelinas and Aggies will square off again on Friday, with the Javs having two chances to win one game and secure the program's first-ever berth in the Division II Softball Championship.
"We just watched two teams play a Super Regional game that've never played a Super Regional game before," said coach Craig Nicholson. "It was sloppy. There were some mistakes made on both sides, but everybody is out there competing and playing hard. I though our lineup did good job getting pitches to hit especially early in the game. We had a 10-2 lead and had to hold on, but we found a way to get a win."
It was Cameron that broke the ice in the second inning thanks to an Abbey Warren double, which scored Callie Busby and Kylie French. The Javelinas quickly sliced that deficit to one in their half of the second, when freshman Amber Reyes (Edinburg, Texas) reached on an error and fellow freshman Jory Cervantes (Pflugerville, Texas) smacked an RBI double into right-center.
The bottom of the third began with senior Victoria Schoonard-Saborio (Elk Grove, Calif.) reaching on an error and sophomore Anastasia Leibas (Del Valle, Texas) proceeded to blast a two-run homer to left for TAMUK's first lead. Another homer came from the next batter, senior Roxy Chapa (McAllen, Texas), boosting the lead to 4-2.
The next two hitters reached on errors before the inning's fourth run scored on a groundout. When Cervantes doubled for the second time, freshman Yvonne Castillo (Leander, Texas) touched home to make the score 6-2. A passed ball moved Cervantes to third and she scored on a fielder's choice. The line kept moving with a single and a walk, loading the bases and bringing up Chapa for the second time in the frame. TAMUK's catcher rocketed a double into the left-field corner to tally two more and the last run in this rally came thanks to a Veronica Chavez (Tempe, Ariz.) single for a 10-2 Javelina advantage.
The Aggies cut into their deficit in a hurry, with seven of their first eight batters in the fourth singling against starter Breanna Smith (San Antonio, Texas). Those hits scored four runs and a fifth came in on a Callie Busby sacrifice fly, pulling the Aggies to within three.
A single by Warren, a stolen base and an error in the fifth led to CU's eighth run of the night, but the Javelinas were able to pad their lead in their half of the inning. Two walks sandwiched around a double loaded the bases before a wild pitch plated the first run and the Javs added one more on another Aggie error to go up, 12-8.
A chance to get those runs back came for the Aggies in the sixth, when Castillo walked three straight hitters with one out, but, on a pitch that went to the backstop, Chapa recovered the ball and tagged out Brenna Busby at the plate. The threat was ended when Callie Busby flied out and Castillo completed 3 2/3 innings of relief work with a perfect seventh for her 25th win.
The first pitch on Friday will be thrown at 4 p.m. at Hubert Field. To keep up with everything related to Javelina softball during the postseason, fans can stay up-to-date with Javelina softball throughout the season by following @TAMUKSB and @JavelinaSports on Twitter, @JavelinaSports on Instagram, liking Javelina Sports on Facebook and visit Javelinaathletics.com.
