STEPHENVILLE – The No. 10-ranked team in the country wasted no time putting a pair in the win column Monday afternoon as the TexAnns scored 21 total runs in 13 innings to blast Texas A&M International in the season opener.
  
The Dustdevils struck first with a three spot in the top of the second, but that would be all that opening day starter Haley Freyman would surrender. Freyman, who went the distance with six innings of work, allowing three runs – two earned – on five hits and two walks with a pair of strikeouts, for her first win of the year and the 24^th of her young career.
 
Meanwhile, the Tarleton offense went to work beginning in the third inning and didn't let up until Nyka Wood ended the game early with a run-ruling, walk-off home run to deep centerfield.
 
The scoring began with three-straight two spots in the third, fourth, and fifth innings.
 
Lauren Powers led off the third with an infield single before Melody Mayse launched a triple off the right centerfield wall to plate Powers for the first TexAnn run of the season. Savannah Stech followed up with an RBI base hit of her own as the junior from Mansfield ripped one through the right side to cut the Dustdevil lead to one.
 
The fourth inning provided the first home runs of the 2016 campaign as Katelyn Conlee teed off to dead center to lead off the inning and tie the game at 3-3. Two batters later, birthday girl Delaney Wayland crushed her first roundtripper of the season to straight away center.
 
Tarleton added two more in the fifth on RBI singles from Wood and Conlee to stretch the lead to 6-3 after five.
 
After Freyman put up another goose egg in the top of the sixth, Rebeka Allen kick started the final TexAnn run with a double. She came in to score on an RBI triple by Powers, who then scored in the next at bat when Melody Mayse drove her home with a single to make it 8-3 Tarleton.
 
A Mayse stolen base and a Stech walk brought Wood to the plate, who put Tarleton in the win column one inning early with a walk-off bomb in front of the left centerfield scoreboard.
 
Tarleton slugged out 13 hits in the opener, on the strength of multi-hit efforts from Mayse (3-4), Wood (2-4), Conlee (2-3), Allen (2-3), and Powers (2-3). Stech and Wayland had one hit and one RBI each. Wood led the way with four RBIs while Mayse and Conlee each had two in the first games of their senior season.
  
Tarleton kept blasting away in the nightcap as the TexAnns, behind Shelby Hedrick's third career complete game and fifth career win, pounded the Dustdevils 10-3.
 
Mayse put Tarleton on the board first when the senior plated Allen with a bases-loaded, sacrifice fly to get the TexAnns on the board with two outs. Stech tacked on some insurance in the ensuing at bat with a 2-RBI single to right to bring home Powers and Wayland for a 3-0 lead after two.
 
After Hedrick kept International off the board for two more innings, Tarleton tacked on one when a leadoff triple by Mayse turned into a run on a double play to push the TexAnn lead to 4-0. Tarleton would add three more in the fifth on an error, an RBI single by Allen, and an RBI squeeze bunt from Powers for a 7-0 lead.
 
The Dustdevils struck for their only damage of the game in the sixth on a three-run home run to left field, but Tarleton got those back in the sixth on a 3-RBI, pinch-hit double down the right field line to bring home Avery Mullendore, Allen, and Wayland. Hedrick shut down the Dustdevils in the seventh to clinch the win.
 
The junior right-hander from Forney went all seven innings in the circle, allowing three runs on seven hits and three walks with a pair of strikeouts.
 
Meanwhile, the Tarleton offense put up an identical 13-hit barrage with multi-hit efforts from Allen (3-3), Mayse (2-3), Stech (2-2), and Amanda Conner (2-3), who played in her first collegiate game Monday. Wood, Stogsdill, Wayland, and Ringhausen rounded out the offense with one hit each.
 
Tarleton will head to San Antonio this weekend for the NCAA Division II College Classic hosted by St. Mary's. The first game of the tournament will be Thursday at 12 p.m. against East Central.