SAN ANTONIO – The Tarleton TexAnn softball team evened its season record at 3-3 after winning two games Saturday at the St. Mary's Classic in San Antonio. The TexAnns defeated East Central 1-0 before a come-from-behind victory over Texas-Permian Basin in the bottom of the seventh (3-2).
Tarleton's Julie Norris pitched seven shut-out innings in the first game allowing just four hits and keeping her season earned run average at 0.00. She kept her ERA clean in the second because both runs scored by UTPB were unearned.
The TexAnns will return to action on Sunday, Feb. 7 at noon when they play Texas A&M-International in the final game of the St. Mary's Classic in San Antonio. The tournament is taking place at the San Antonio ISD Spring Sports Complex.
Tarleton 1, East Central 0
The only run in the contest came in the top of the fourth inning. With one out, April Gonzalez singled before Elyse Tatum came in to pinch run for the catcher. Adrianna Rodriguez singled, but Tatum was caught off the bag at second. Victoria Kelly then reached on an error by the left fielder to put runners at first and second before Morgan Collier singled to score Rodriguez.
That was the only run the purple and white would need thanks to a great pitching performance from Norris.
“Julie pitched great and only gave up a few hits to a good-hitting ECU team,” said head coach Julie Mata. “Morgan Collier got a big hit for us. We had some exceptional defensive plays by Meagan Eldridge at third and Tami Sutton in the outfield.”
Norris recorded four strikeouts while walking just one batter on four hits. She ran her streak of retiring batters to 18 through three games when a hitter was hit on a pitch. Only one batter got passed second in the game for the Tigers.
Rebecca Wessels was two-for-three at the plate while Rodriguez was three-for-three and Amy Gabbert went two-for-two.
Tarleton 3, Texas-Permian Basin 2
For the first time this season, Norris started both games on the same day, and the TexAnn allowed two unearned runs on four hits while walking one and striking out a season-high nine batters. To start the season, Norris has pitched 28.2 innings with no earned runs.
UTPB scored both of its runs in the top of the fifth inning on one hit and two errors.
In the bottom of the fifth frame with one out, Brittany Terry singled to left center to get things going before a Norris single through the left side put two runners on. Gonzalez walked to load the bases before a pop out to the catcher by Rodriguez. Kelly then walked to score Terry and cut the lead to one run.
Gonzalez walked to open the final frame before Rodriguez had a sacrifice bunt to move the catcher to second. Kelly singled to left field to put runners at the corners before Eldrdige singled to left to score Gonzalez. Gabbert fouled out to third before a Wessels single pushed Kelly across the plate and gave the TexAnns the victory.
Terry was two-of-three at the plate for the TexAnns to lead the team in batting for the game.
“This was one of the most exciting games I have coached,” Mata said. “The girls really fought hard for this one.”
