PINEVILLE, La. – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor softball team dropped a pair of games to Louisiana College Tuesday evening in Pineville, falling 2-0 and 7-4 to the Wildcats. The wins improved the Wildcats to 25-8 on the season and 20-5 in American Southwest Conference action while the Cru fell to 19-13 overall and 17-9 in conference play.
Louisiana College used a two-run bottom of the first inning to gain enough advantage to earn a win over the Cru. Emory Nugent scored the game-winning run after a UMHB error, followed by an RBI single from Courtney Ivey to score Jordan Mason for the 2-0 lead.
Janie Neyland,
Karley Free and
Cori Drake all recorded hits for UMHB.
Tiffany Birdwell took the loss for UMHB, pitching six innings with two runs and eight hits. Birdwell walked two batters and struck out one in 28 batters faced. Sevannah Settle earned the win for Louisiana College, allowing three hits with one walk and five strikeouts. UMHB totaled three hits and two errors while the Wildcats had two runs on eight hits with one error.
The second contest proved to be a back-and-forth competition with several lead changes.
Myranda Hinojosa gave the Cru it's first lead of the game, hitting a two RBI double to score Neyland and Lean Brown for a 2-0 lead in the top of the third. Louisiana College responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the third to tie the contest at 2-2. UMHB regained a lead in the top of the fourth with an RBI single from
Kelsey Vann, allowing
Amelia Cluke to score. The Wildcats again responded once again with RBI from Laura Gulotta-Parish and Courtney Ivey for a 4-3 lead.
Faith Escobar struck next for the Cru, hitting a double to left centerfield allowing Brown to score from second and tying the game at 4-4. From there, Louisiana College scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth and sealed the win with a home run in the bottom of the sixth, giving the Wildcats the 7-4 victory. Free and Escobar led the Cru with two hits each while Neyland, Hinojosa and Vann each added one. Brown scored a team-high two runs while Hinojosa recorded a team-high two RBI.
Haley Parker started the contest for UMHB, pitching two innings with two runs on three hits.
Karen Tennis took the loss for the Cru, pitching four innings with five runs on six hits. UMHB totaled four runs on seven hits with two errors while Louisiana College had seven runs on nine hits.
UMHB will finish the series tomorrow in a 1 p.m. single game in Pineville. The Cru will then travel to Hardin-Simmons to conclude the regular-season in a weekend series in Abilene.
