Kingsville - In a key doubleheader with St. Edward's, the Texas A&M - Kingsville softball team split the games, winning 7-6 in game one before falling 11-4 in game two.
The team's eight-game homestand started with red-hot bats, as the Javelinas plated all seven of their game-one runs in the first three innings, before the Hilltoppers came back to make the contest close. Game two started much the other way, with the road team putting seven on the board in the first three innings and spending the final four staving off TAMUK rally attempts.
"Like I told the girls, in the Lone Star Conference, you get a split, hey, you did a good job," Head Coach
Orlando Salinas said. "But, we just feel like we just didn't play to our standard, you know, of what we do. We told the girls that we just came from playing UT-Tyler, No.1 team in the country, we played them very well. We played high level catch. And then today, we just didn't do that. We just didn't play to our standard."
The graduate student outfielder combo of left-fielder
AJ Jasso and center-fielder
Lindsey Evans each posted multi-hit games in game one, combining to go 4-8 with two RBIs. Two Javelinas, Evans and sophomore DP
Dakota Martinez, added homers on the day, they are tied for the team lead with six-a-piece.
Jasso started the party in game one, scoring junior right-fielder
Shelbie Peal with a first-inning single. In the next two at-bats, Martinez sent Evans home with a double, before senior first-baseman
Kaylynne Ruiz cleared the bases with another double to make it 4-0. Though SEU got one back in the second, Kingsville responded with three more run in the next two innings in the form of a solo bomb from Evans and a two-RBI single from sophomore
Laney Doelitsch.
Then, it was St. Ed's turn to show off its offense, platting three runs in the fourth before scoring one each in the fifth and sixth. With the game on the line late, however, the Javelina defense stepped up big time, retiring five straight to close out the game and the win. Freshman right-hander
Arianna Alaniz pitched the full game, giving up eight hits and six hits - five of them earned - while striking out 10, the win is her eighth of the year.
Kingsville's offense struggled early in game two, with the team not picking up its first hit of the game until the third inning. By the time the team started its scoring rally, with sophomore right-fielder
Seleste Compian scoring one with a triple in the fifth, TAMUK already found itself in a big hold. An Evans double in the next at-bat scored Compian and cut the Javleinas' deficit to five. The Hilltoppers didn't take long to respond, taking on four more runs over the next two innings, before Martinez closed the day's scoring with a two-run homer.
Kingsville will now look ahead to Sunday's 4 p.m. first-pitch doubleheader matchup with St. Mary's.
"It's gonna be a war, it's gonna be a war on Sunday," Salinas said. "They're a very good team, but our matchup is going to be very even, you know, it's going to be who gets a clutch hit and who plays high-level defense."
