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Farmers Branch, Texas - The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor softball team gave up two-run home runs in three straight innings to the #1 team in the country and could not generate the offense to overcome that in a 6-0 loss to U.T.-Tyler Thursday night in an American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament winner's bracket game. The loss snaps the Cru's 13-game winning streak and drops UMHB to 27-15 on the season. The Patriots improve to 40-2 on the year with the victory.
The game would be scoreless into the bottom of the fourth inning. Ashley Endsley blasted a one-out two-run homer to give U.T.-Tyler a 2-0 lead. UMHB put runners on second and third base with no outs in the top of the fifth, but could not push across a run to cut the deficit. Raven Rodriguez added a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth to stretch the lead and Rachel Howell's two-run blast in the bottom of the sixth inning closed out the scoring. UMHB would put a runner in scoring position in the top of the seventh but could not convert that base runner into a score.
Rebekah Ragsdale took the loss for the Cru to drop to 15-5 on the season. She scattered four hits and gave up four runs in four and two-thirds innings of work. Five different players had hits in the game for UMHB. Heather Abshire earned the win for U.T.-Tyler to move her record to 19-1 and Kelsey Batten notched her fourth save in relief. Endsley and Lauren Robenalt had two hits apiece to lead the Patriots eight-hit attack.
UMHB will return to action with a 10:00 AM elimination game against Howard Payne University on Friday. U.T.-Tyler will face East Texas Baptist in another winner's bracket game at 1:00 PM on Friday.
