LAREDO, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team earned its third straight series win in the Lone Star Conference on Wednesday afternoon, defeating its closest geographical foe Texas A&M-International,
8-0 in the series finale.
Beth Montes (6-2) dominated in the circle, pitching for the Javelinas (11-9, 8-4 LSC) throwing a complete game shutout against the Dustdevils (10-16, 6-9 LSC), allowing only seven hits across the seven innings of work while striking out nine batters.
"The girls came in today with a different energy," said interim coach Orlando Salinas. "We were completely locked in across the board from pitching, fielding, and hitting. When we play relaxed and focused like that, we are a tough team to beat."
TAMUK got out of the blocks quickly, scoring two runs in the first with the team leader in batting average Kayla Gonzales ripping an RBI single to left field when later, Sammie Saenz then brought a second run across with a sacrifice fly to right field putting the Javs up, 2-0.
Natalie Rodriguez then extended the lead to three in the fourth inning, opening the frame with a solo home run to left field. The Edinburg native got her second RBI of the day an inning later with a sacrifice fly to left that scored pinch-runner Autumn Jones from third.
Later in the inning, Anissa Lechner singled down the right field line to score Matisen Onofrei from first base.
Two more runs came across in the seventh for the Blue and Gold via back-to-back RBIs from Rylee Oborski and Jory Cervantes making the TAMUK advantage, 8-0.
Montes kept the clean sheet, striking out two, and forcing a groundout to end the game.
TAMUK now welcomes Lubbock Christian to town for a three-game series beginning on Saturday with a double header starting at 4 p.m.
You can keep up with Javelina softball all year long by following @TAMUKSB and @JavelinaSports on both Twitter and Instagram, liking the Javelina Sports Facebook page, subscribing to the Javelina Athletics YouTube Channel and visiting Javelinaathletics.com. Watch your Javelinas live today on the Lone Star Conference Digital Network.
