Portales, NM - In the second doubleheader series of the Lone Star Conference season for the Texas A&M - Kingsville softball team, the Javelinas lost two close ballgames, 8-5 and 3-2, on the road against Eastern New Mexico.
In both games, Kingsville's bats struggled to get consistent contact, a far cry from the team's Friday doubleheader, in which it scored 27 runs across the two games. The Javelinas had five hits in game one and four in game two. Only one player, graduate student outfielder
Lindsey Evans, had a multi-hit game on Sunday.
The Greyhounds jumped on the Javelinas early in game one, putting four on the board in the second inning after TAMUK opened the game's scoring with a homer from sophomore
Laney Doelitsch. Though Kingsville answered by getting a run back in the third in the form of an RBI single from freshman
Savannah Garza, ENMU posted crooked numbers in both the fifth and the sixth to pad its lead.Â
The Javelinas, however, would not go down quietly. Sophomore
Seleste Compian hammered a deep shot into left field in the top of the seventh, and turned on the burners. Showing off her speed around the basepaths, Compian scored a three-run inside-the-park homerun. Despite the admirable effort from the road team, the Greyhounds were able to hold on for the win.
Game two had far fewer fireworks, with the pitching for both teams doing the heavy lifting instead. Junior
Kristina Nash (L, 3-3) pitched all six innings for the Javelinas, giving up only two earned runs along the way. The Greyhounds struck first, scoring a run in the bottom of the second, but the game was evened up in the very next inning. Freshman
Alexis Soliz, who has been one of Kingsville's best hitters early in the year, knocked an RBI single into right field, knotting the game at one.
A solo homer and an RBI single in the fourth from ENMU, however, put the road team back on top - this time for good. While another Doelitsch homer pulled TAMUK within a run in the sixth, the Greyhounds again held on for a tight win.
The Javelinas will be back on the diamond next weekend when they play their home-opening series against Sul Ross St. at noon and 2 p.m. on Friday.Â
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