Kingsville - On a day where its offense struggled to get its bats going, the Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team fell 1-4 and 1-5 to the UT-Tyler Patriots, ending its winning streak at nine games, the longest since 2022.
The Javelinas had some strong pitching performances but totalled just nine hits on the day and hit 1-of-9 with runners in scoring position (1-of-8, 0-of-1). Freshman OF
Victoria Vargas and sophomore SS were TAMUK's two players with multi-hit days. Vargas went 3-of-6, and scored both of Kingsville's runs across the doubleheader. Kingsville is now 9-7 overall and 4-2 in Lone Star Conference play.
Game one saw the Javelinas start quickly with sophomore OF
Lainee Ballin getting a base knock in the bottom of the first, sending home Vargas to give TAMUK an early lead. From there, however, it became a defensive slugfest. A UT-Tyler run scored in the fourth on a sacrifice fly was the only thing that broke up nine combined scoreless sides on either side of it. Senior RHP
Andrea Martinez dueled with Tyler's starter, striking out five and ceding just one run until the seventh inning, where she allowed a pair to give UTT its lead and, eventually, its win.
The day's second game saw more early action, with the two teams trading runs, one each in each side of the first inning, including Vargas using a single followed by, respectively, stolen bag, a passed ball, and a wild pitch to take each base and home plate, trying to score at 1-1. Tyler responded quickly, plating four runs of its own across the next three innings, giving itself a 5-1 lead, which would later become the final score.
The Javelinas will now hit the road to play four road LSC contests, starting their weekend at UT-Permian Basin on Friday (DH: 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m.), and finishing it in San Angelo against No.9 Angelo St. on Sunday (DH: 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m.).
