- Box Score: Game 1

- Box Score: Game 2

DENTON – Tarleton (13-5) dominated the opening day of the Texas Woman's Best Western Premier Spring Fling by handing MIAA foes Fort Hays and Washburn one-sided losses Friday night.
   
Samantha Swanda pitched her second complete game shutout this week as the senior hurler lifted the TexAnns  over Fort Hays (4-2) by an 8-0 score in the opening game of the Texas Woman's Spring Fling in Denton.
 
Tanner Pipkin got the TexAnns on the board in the top second with a three-run roundtripper, which plated Swanda (walk) and Bailee Mauldin (single), to give Tarleton a 3-0 lead.
 
Tarleton padded its lead in the top of the third.
 
Alex Orf led off with a walk which was immediately followed by an Arianna Rodriguez double to the right center gap. Katie Welborn followed up by plating Orf and moving Rodriguez with a sacrifice fly to center. Swanda then drove in Rodriguez with a fielder's choice to give Tarleton a 5-0 lead.
 
Swanda ran into some trouble in the bottom of the third with runners on second and third with one away, but the senior got a shallow fly ball to left and a looking strikeout to end the Tiger threat.
 
The Tigers had only two more base runner over the next three innings – one erased off the bases by Amber Sotelo - and the TexAnns added three more in the top of the seventh on a three-run Mauldin bomb to lead 8-0.
 
FHSU threatened to break up the shutout in the top of the seventh as they led off with back-to-back singles and moved to second and third with a one-out wild pitch, but Swanda rallied to force a pop-up and a groundout to complete victory.
 
The senior from Apache allowed four hits over seven innings while striking out five and also had a walk, run scored and RBI in the cleanup spot in the TexAnn batting order.
 
Tarleton worked five walks off the Tiger pitchers, scoring eight runs on just five hits. Mauldin is the only TexAnn with a multi-hit game while Pipkin, Welborn and Rodriguez had the other TexAnn hits.
   
In the nightcap of the tournament opening day, Tarleton didn't need all seven innings as the TexAnns polished off Washburn (1-3) 15-2 in five innings Friday.
 
Randi Fentress battled back from a leadoff single to strikeout the side in the opening frame and set the tone for another solid outing.
 
The TexAnn offense gave Fentree some support in the bottom of the first when Welborn homered with two outs and Swanda came around to score on an RBI hit by Mauldin for the first two runs of the night.
 
After a scoreless second, Tarleton opened the flood gates in the third inning beginning with a single by Rodriguez then back-to-back jacks by Welborn and Swanda.
 
After three straight singles, Brittany Dumas stepped in as a pinch hitter and drove in Latta and Mauldin with a two-RBI single to put Tarleton on top 7-0.
 
After Orf was hit by a pitch to load the bases, the lead runner Fentress came in to score while Eryn Freitas and Orf advanced on an illegal pitch.
 
Rodriguez made the last big strike of the inning with a two-RBI double to left to make the Tarleton lead 10-0. Welborn walked and Rodriguez stole third, but couldn't add to their already large lead.
 
The TexAnns put the game away in the bottom of the fourth when Freitas and Orf drove in runs with singles then crossed the plate on a Rodriguez homer for the TexAnns' final runs of the short night.
 
Rodriguez was 3-4 at the dish with two runs and five RBIs while Welborn was 2-3 with two home runs and three RBIs. Mauldin also had a multi-hit game with one run and one RBI.
 
Orf, Swanda, Tanner Pipkin, Kelsey Latta, Fentress, Freitas and Dumas had one base hit each for Tarleton.
 
Fentress earned her second victory this week by pitching all five innings allowing two runs, in the top of the fifth, on three hits and two walks while striking out a season-high 12.
 
“We were very aggressive tonight offensively,” said Tarleton head coach Julie Mata. “We took care of business at the plate and got very solid pitching. It was an all-around solid effort.”
 
Tarleton returns to action tomorrow with a 9 a.m. meeting against Texas Permian-Basin and a 4:30 p.m. game against Central Missouri.