Tyler - The Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team responded to an 8-0 (five innings) loss to the No.20 UT-Tyler Patriots in game one of their doubleheader with a 5-2 win in game two, the fourth ranked win of the season for the Javelinas.
The split solidifies TAMUK's hold on the fifth spot in the Lone Star Conference standings. With just two games left in the Javelinas' regular season (at TWU - Sunday - 1:00 p.m. & 3:00 p.m.), it is no longer possible for them to move either up or down in the standings, locking them into a four-five first round matchup in next week's LSC Tournament.
Including its Senior-Day sweep of Eastern New Mexico last Sunday, Kingsville has now won three of its last four games, improving to 31-17 overall and 26-12 in LSC play. Twenty-six is the most conference wins in program history.
Late Game Heroics
The huge game-two win for TAMUK came courtesy of multiple clutch performances late in the contest. Kingsville scored three runs in the final two innings of the game, with sophomore RF
Lainee Ballin coming around to score the go-ahead run in the sixth, and then, along with junior 1B
Dakota Martinez, drove in a run in the seventh to add to the Javelinas' lead.
Once the Hogs had grabbed the lead, they turned to senior RHP
Andrea Martinez, who entered the game with the tying run aboard in the sixth. She faced just one batter over the minimum, picking up the last five outs of the game with just nine pitches, earning the fifth save of her season. That is the fifth-most saves ever racked up in a single season in Javelina history, and ties her for the third-most in career history.
Game Summaries
Game one began as a defensive duel, with two of the LSC's best pitchers going at it. The two defenses engineered seven straight scoreless sides to begin the contest, before UTT scored a pair in the bottom of the fourth, breaking the scoreless tie. The Patriots then build off of that with another crooked number in the fifth, scoring six and bringing the run rule into effect, ending the game. A. Martinez (L, 13-8) started the game in the circle, pitching all 4.1 of the contest.Â
Game two began in a similar vein to the first, with each team posting just one base-runner a-piece through the first two innings. That changed in the top of the third, however, when Kingsville loaded the bases. Sophomore 3B
Alaunah Almaraz blooped a base knock into left center, driving in the first scratch of the day for TAMUK and giving the team an early lead. One batter later, D. Martinez sent a sacrifice fly into center field, making it 2-0. After the Patriots came back to tie the game on their side of the third, TAMUK's defense clamped up. Kingsville used four different pitchers, freshman LHP
Kailee Silva, junior RHP
Marianna Zumerle, senior RHP
Kristina Nash (W, 9-1), and A. Martinez (S, 5) to force Tyler into leaving seven runners stranded between the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh innings.Â
The Javelinas' pitching crew kept the game tied until its offense broke through, with freshman DP
Isabella Hernandez reaching on an error to bring home Ballin, the winning run, in the sixth.
Up Next
Just one doubleheader standings between the Javelinas and their trip to the LSC Tournament next week. They will be making the short trip to Denton to take on the Texas Woman's Pioneers on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.. The contests will be a rematch from when Kingsville swept TWU when the two teams faced off back in February.
