PORTALES, NM – A day after scoring 24 runs in two games, Tarleton State continued to swing hit bats with 27 runs – including 17 unanswered runs in game two – to wrap up the 2015 regular season with a road sweep of Eastern New Mexico.

"I am so proud of our team," said head coach Julie Mata. "We fought hard and swept a road series against a team that hits the ball really well. I was excited to see Jessie Thompson come in and get a big home run for us. Mikayla (Stogsdill) and Nyka (Wood) had a couple of big home runs to put us on top in game two. We could have gotten down when they jumped out to a big lead, but this team never quits. This team has brought championsip culture back to Tarleton Softball."
  
Sparked by a five-run second inning, Tarleton State scored in five of the six innings it needed to blow past Eastern New Mexico in game one of Saturday's doubleheader 10-2.
 
The Zias struck first with a run in the bottom of the first for their first lead of the series, but the TexAnns answered back with force  - beginning with a double to left field from Rebekah Allen to lead off Tarleton's five-run inning.
 
With two on and one out, the big blow of the inning came on a three-run home run from Jessie Thompson in a pinch hitting role for Tarleton. Tarleton would not settle for a 3-1 advantage as Nyka Wood cashed in with a two-out, two-run single to plate Melody Mayse and Savannah Stech for a 5-1 lead after the top of the second.
 
Tarleton tacked on one in the third on an Eastern New Mexico error before adding two in the fourth – the first of which came on Katelyn Conlee's third home run of the series. After an Erika Menchaca walk and an Allen single, Delaney Wayland plated Menchaca with an RBI single for an 8-1 lead after four.
 
Melody Mayse added one more to the Tarleton side of the scoreboard with a leadoff home run in the fifth. After Eastern New Mexico extended the game by scoring one more in the sixth, Tarleton pushed the lead back to eight when Wayland teed off to left field for the fourth TexAnn home run of the game to put the TexAnns up 10-2.
 
Tarleton's Haley Freyman sat the Zias down in order in the bottom half of the sixth to secure her 19^th win of the season. She tossed her 12^th complete game of the season with all six innings of work, over which she allowed two runs – one earned – on seven hits and a walk.
 
The TexAnn offense, meanwhile, pounded out 17 hits in the win as every TexAnn in the lineup recorded a base hit, led by the 4-5 effort of Mayse in the leadoff spot. Conlee, Wood, Allen, and Wayland also had multi-hit efforts while Stech, Menchaca, Mikayla Stogsdill, Lauren Powers and Thompson rounded out the Tarleton hitting performance.
  
An eight-run fourth inning turned around a rough start for the TexAnns and lifted Tarleton State to a sweep of Eastern New Mexico in the regular season finale Saturday afternoon.
 
Eastern New Mexico struck for the its biggest inning of the series to open things up – scoring five in the bottom of the first to take a 5-0 lead over Tarleton early. The Zias tacked on two more in the third with an RBI double and an RBI single with two outs to push the TexAnn deficit to 7-0.
 
But Tarleton State would not shy away from the challenge.
 
Nyka Wood got the top of the fourth started with a leadoff single and a one-out walk from Allen before Stogsdill blasted off for a three-run home run to right field to get Tarleton on the board. After a pop up three pitches later, Tarleton got singles from Powers and Mayse and a walk from Stech to load the bases for Wood.
 
The freshman catcher finished what she started by crushing a grand slam to right field to cap off the eight-run rally for the TexAnns and turn the 7-0 deficit into an 8-7 lead.
 
Tarleton continued to pour it on over the next two innings, beginning with an RBI single in the fifth from Stech, before exploding once again in the sixth inning with another eight spot to put the TexAnns in position to claim another early win.
 
After an error allowed the TexAnns to plate the first run of the inning, Tarleton opened the flood gates with a 2-RBI double from Wayland, an RBI fielder's choice from Mayse, an RBI single from Stech and an RBI single from Wood to chase the Zia pitcher. Erika Menchaca welcomed the new Eastern hurler with a single that – along with an error – brought home the final two runs of the game.
 
Shelby Hedrick earned the win for Tarleton after coming on in relief of Alyssa Ringhausen to get the final out of the first inning. She pitched the next 2.1 innings allowing two runs on three hits with a walk. Haley Freyman came on in the bottom of the fourth when the game was 8-7 and pitched the final three innings, over which she allowed just two hits to earn her second save of the season.
 
Stech, Wood and Menchaca paced the Tarleton offense with three hits each while Lauren Powers added two hits of her own. Mayse, Conlee, Allen, Stogsdill and Wayland added one hit each to cap off the 16-hit effort for the TexAnn offense.
 
Tarleton will compete in its 14^th trip to the Lone Star Conference Championship Tournament next weekend at Schaeffer Park in Canyon.