Canyon - The Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team upset No.16 Angelo State, 8-5, to advance to the Regional Final, before closing out its season with an 13-5 loss to No.6 West Texas A&M
Kingsville scored three runs in the seventh against the Rambelles, breaking the 5-5 tie to upset the region's three seed in historic fashion, and earned the program's third trip to a Regional Final matchup since 2003. With the Javelina loss to WT that followed, they closed out their season 36-21, the third-most wins in a single season for the program since 2002.
The team set single-season program records in walks, hit-by-pitch, and in-conference wins. It earned a berth to the Lone Star Conference Tournament Championship game for the first time since 2019, and a trip to the NCAA South Central Regional for the first time since 2022.
Heartattack Hogs
As has become the norm lately for Kingsville, late-game heroics helped lift the squad to another huge postseason win. This time, it came over Angelo State in the waning moments of the two teams' early-afternoon meeting in the South Central Regional. The Javelinas and Rambelles had played each other six times already throughout the season, including earlier this weekend. The seventh meeting of the year came in the loftiest of situations, as an elimination game for both teams, with the prize for the winner being a trip to the Regional Championship game.
Facing a tie game in the top of the seventh, sophomore 3B
Alaunah Almaraz took the third pitch of the inning deep over the left field wall, giving the Javelinas a late lead. They added to that lead a few batters later, when freshman DP
Isabella Hernandez scored a pair with a base hit pushing the score to 8-5, where it would stay after the bottom of the seventh, in which senior RHP
Andrea Martinez (W, 17-10) closed out her complete-game win. That marked the final time that Martinez pitched in her collegiate career, closing the book on an incredible senior year. She pitched in 13 complete games, racking up 17 wins, and striking out 136 batters, the 13th-most by a Javelina in a single season. She also picked up five saves, the second-most in a single season in program history, and tied for the fourth-most in a career in Javelina history.
Game Summary: Win, 8-5, VS Angelo St.
Once again, a Rambelle-Javelina meeting quickly became a heavyweight bout, with TAMUK striking first. Sophomore RF
Lainee Ballin grounded out in the first, bringing sophomore SS
Megan Geyer home from third and breaking the scoreless tie. As quickly as Kingsville acquired its lead, however, it lost it, as ASU tied it with a run of its own in the bottom of the first.
Wasting no time, TAMUK struck right back, using a bases-clearing single from junior 1B
Dakota Martinez to give the Javelinas an 4-1 advantage. Ballin added another RBI to her day and another score to Kingsville's lead in the very next at-bat with a base hit that brought a run home.
Six scoreless innings passed until Angelo struck, scratching four runs across the fifth and sixth to knot the score at 5-5. As they have done time and time again this season, the Hogs refused to blink. A three-run top of the seventh gave TAMUK its final win of the season in dramatic fashion, marking the third time since 2003 that the program has won a pair of Regional contests.
Game Summary: Loss, 13-4, VS West Texas A&M
After a brief intermission following its win, TAMUK faced off with a red-hot, and rested, WT softball team. That team wasted no time getting its offense going, scoring six runs between the second and fourth innings, giving the team a decisive early advantage. Even in the face of the Lady Buffs' big hitter, Kingsville refused to go down without a fight, scoring three runs in the final three frames to keep the game going and threaten a late comeback. Freshman CF Ayla Gonzalez and Ballin each sent home runs in that time, but ultimately, the Javelinas came up short, putting an end to their historic season.
