KINGSVILLE, Texas. (Softball) – Texas A&M University-Kingsville (19-21, 8-11 LSC) split the season series with St. Edward's University (14-24, 6-3 Heartland Conference) after falling in game one 7-4 and bouncing back with a 4-3 win in game two in Wednesday evening's twin bill at Vernie and Blanche Hubert Field.
Victoria Schoonard-Saborio extended her reached base streak to 18 games, increased her total to 16 multiple hit games this year and has the longest active hitting streak of seven games after batting .500 on the day with two runs scored and one RBI in eight at bats. Randa Hatter concluded the day with a .375 batting average, while Roxy Chapa (.250) went yard in game two and tallied a team-high three ribbies in series in the same number of plate appearances as Schoonard-Saborio.
In addition to a good day at the plate, Hatter (5-5) finished the series with a 1.62 ERA, fanned six batters and relinquished one walked in 4.1 innings. Sarah Gilbert (5-2) followed her impressive performance from yesterday's doubleheader against #3 St. Mary's with another solid game where she held the opposing batters to a .192 average in seven innings pitched en rout to picking up a win in game two.
Game 1
Hogs scored first after Rachael Longoria started the inning with a leadoff single to the shortstop and found her way to home plate after capitalizing on two wild pitches for the 1-0 lead in the first inning. The home team tacked on three more runs in the second highlighted by a SAC bunt RBI from Carlie Clark, a RBI single from Schoonard-Saborio and a RBI double from Chapa to take a solid 4-0 lead. However, St. Edward's came alive in the bottom half of the second inning and took the lead after they scored five runs on five hits and two errors to enter the third stanza with a 5-4 advantage.
The Hilltoppers held the Javs bats in check for the remainder of the game and added two more insurance runs in the sixth inning for a 7-4 victory.Â
Hannah Halepaska improved to 1-1 in the circle after she put out five innings of work although claiming just one K. Reagan Carter saw two innings on the rubber for SEU where she struck out one batter and earned all four of the Javelinas runs scored. Clark (2-7) took the loss after pitching 2.2 innings and was relieved by Hatter who threw 4.1 innings and logged six strikeouts of the 16 batters she faced.
Game 2
The first run of game two came from the Blue and Gold and started with Lauren Oatman graced with a walk. She then advanced on a wild pitch and made her way to third on a groundout ball from Haley Boyett. Arabella Acosta-Cantu was hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners and a clutch bunt to third base from Gilbert had the defender froze as Oatman crossed home plate for the score.
After two scoreless innings, the Javelinas crossed one in the fifth and an inning later, Chapa crushed a ball for a two-run home run following Schoonard-Saborio's single up the middle to pad the lead 4-0.
Once again, the Hilltoppers made a run when Karolina Rodriguez's two-run dinger cut the deficit to one. Prior to the long ball, Megan Hoffman touched home plate due to a fielding error. TAMUK prevailed though, and retired the next three batters to seal the win and split the doubleheader.
Gilbert tossed her second complete game of the year where she sat down two, walked two and earned two of the Hilltoppers three runs. The win bumps her record to 5-2 while Burdick fell to 4-5 this season after pitching six innings.Â
Texas A&M-Kingsville will have the weekend off and return to the diamond on April 13 to kickoff a three-game series against Eastern New Mexico at 6 p.m.
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