Mansfield - Though they held late leads against both Colorado School of Mines and RV Southern Arkansas, the Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team was unable to come up with a win in either of them, losing 10-7 and 7-6 respectively on day one of the Lone Star D2 College Classic.
Across the two games, the Javelinas posted a .358 on base percentage, with six different players bringing in runs throughout the day. Closing out the contests, however, proved the difficult part, as the team gave up 10 total runs across the day's sixth and seventh innings - five in game one's seventh and five in game two's sixth.
"Today we had two tough losses," Head Coach
Orlando Salinas said. "We were leading in both games in the sixth inning by at least three runs and ended up making a few miscues that cost us."
The opening inning of opening day for the Hogs proved a wild one, with five runs plated total (three by Colorado, two by Kingsville) with zero hits recorded. The second inning saw TAMUK settle in on both sides of the ball, with sophomore LHP
Esther Martinez taking over in the circle and throwing a scoreless side, and the Javelina offense exploding for four runs. Sophomore DP
Dakota Martinez started the party by reaching on an error that plated two, before freshman first baseman
Isabella Hernandez knocked a two-RBI single up the middle to expand on Kingsville's lead. Though Mines got closer with a pair of runs in the fourth, sophomore third baseman
Alaunah Almaraz's RBI single gave the Hogs a two-run buffer entering the seventh. The Orediggers' five runs in their final frame, however, gave them a late lead that Kingsville could not overcome.
"We swung the bats and pitched it well," Salinas said. "We just need to clean up the defensive side of the ball. Goal is to master each phase of the game and I believe we are really close to doing that."
The Javelinas started much slower in the second game of the day, and trailed 0-2 through the first three innings. When the fourth rolled around, that lead was quickly erased, as Martinez again barrelled up a ball, this time sending it clear over the centerfield wall for a two-run blast, tying up the game. Kingsville then took the lead in the fifth and added to it in the sixth, scoring a pair of runs in each, including a two-RBI double from sophomore shortstop
Megan Geyer. Once again, however, a late, five-run frame from TAMUK's opponent proved too much to overcome.
"I was able to get everybody in the game so we can see exactly what we have by the time conference play comes," Salinas said. "The mistakes that we made can be cleaned up so we are very excited with our team for our future."
Kingsville has a quick turnaround on its hands, with a 2:00 p.m. matchup against Metropolitan State University of Denver set for tomorrow. After that, two Sunday games will close out the Javelinas' weekend in Mansfield.
"Tomorrow is another day to get better," Salinas said. "We look forward to tomorrow's contests."
