CANYON – Tarleton State exploded for eight runs and shutout Colorado Mines in the nightcap of a Saturday doubleheader to earn a split and win its eighth game of the young season.
 
"Our first game was very well pitched by Shelby Hedrick," said head coach Julie Mata. "Metro State is a very strong team and she kept them off balance. We failed to make defensive plays behind her and it cost us the game.
 
"I was proud to see us turn it around and come back strong for an 8-0 win over Colorado Mines," she added. "Savannah Stech and Erika Menchaca stood out with some big hits and our intensity level really lifted us up."
  
Tarleton State opened day two of the WT Woodward Invitational with only one hit en route to dropping its second straight game with a 3-2 loss to Metro State.
 
The pitcher's duel was under way from the get-go as an infield single to plate an early walk for Metro State in the bottom of the first inning was the only offense over the first three innings. The Roadrunners had a chance to make it 2-0 in the third with a lead-off triple, but Shelby Hedrick snagged a grounder in the pitching circle and gunned down the runner at the plate to keep things 1-0 after three.
 
Meanwhile, the Tarleton offense finally broke through in the top of the fourth inning thanks to a pair of Metro State errors, a stolen base and an RBI single from Kaitlyn Thomas.
 
Melody Mayse led off the inning by reaching on an error and swiped second base during the ensuing at bat. Thomas came through with an opposite-field single that escaped the left fielder and allowed Mayse to score from second and Thomas to run all the way around for the second run of the inning and a 2-1 Tarleton lead.
 
After Hedrick kept the Roadrunners off the board in the fourth, Metro State got an RBI single in the fifth to tie the game before an error allowed the winning run to cross in the sixth.
 
The Tarleton offense got two on the sixth courtesy of an error and a walk, but a strikeout and a pop up ended the sixth-inning threat before a popped up bunt, groundout and foul out the third base kept the tying run stranded at second base in the seventh.
 
Thomas's RBI single in the fourth inning was the only hit of the game for Tarleton, but four Metro State errors and a walk by Rebekah Allen gave the TexAnns their chances.
 
Hedrick went the distance from the circle for her first career complete game in the tough-luck loss. The junior tossed six innings, allowing three runs – two earned – on five hits and three walks to go along with a season-high six strikeouts.
  
In the second game of the middle day, the TexAnn bats came to life with back-to-back four spots in the third and fourth inning while Katelyn Conlee and Haley Freyman combined for a five-inning shutout of the Orediggers for Tarleton's eighth win of the season.
 
After a scoreless first two innings, Erika Menchaca sparked the TexAnns with a lead-off triple into the right center gap. Lauren Powers followed up by reaching on an error and, two batters late, Savannah Stech stepped up with two-on and one away.
 
The junior lefty lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to bring home Menchaca and put the TexAnns on the board. Following a Conlee walk, Kady Crow blasted the big blow of the inning when the junior launched a three-run jack out to dead center for a 4-0 Tarleton lead.
 
In the ensuing half inning, Colorado Mines threatened with a pair of singles and a hit batter y Haley Freyman to load the bases with one away. The freshman pitcher danced out of danger, however, by getting a grounder to keep a run off the board and setting down the side with a looking strikeout to keep Tarleton up 4-0.
 
Tarleton tacked on four more in the fourth with a two-out rally centered on the bat of Stech.
 
Mikayla Stogsdill led off with a single and, after a pair of strikeouts, Lauren Powers followed up with a single of her own. Melody Mayse reached on an error that allowed Stogsdill to score and make it 5-0 before Stech cleared the bases with a two-run triple into the right center gap. The junior came in to score on a wild pitch during the next at bat to extend the lead to 8-0.
 
Freyman kept the Orediggers off the board in the final two innings to end the game early at 8-0.
 
Tarleton had nine hits on the day, including two from Stech and Stogsdill. Crow, Menchaca, Powers, Jessie Thompson and Taylor Fitzgerald had the rest of the hits for the TexAnns.
 
Conlee started the game in the circle and pitched into the second inning, allowing two hits and a walk with one strikeout that reached on a passed ball. Freyman came into the game in the second and finished it out with a looking strikeout and a grounder to keep the shutout intact.
 
Freyman allowed two hits over the rest of the game to earn the win for Tarleton.
 
The TexAnns will wrap up the tournament Sunday afternoon with back-to-back early games against Colorado State-Pueblo and Adams State in Canyon.