CANYON – No. 10 Tarleton dropped both games of Friday afternoon's tournament opener at the West Texas A&M Invitational, falling to Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference foes Metro State and Chadron State.
  
Tarleton stranded seven baserunners and couldn't overcome five unearned runs to begin the tournament and the TexAnns dropped its second game of the season 6-2 to Metro State.
 
The TexAnns struck first in the top of the second when Nyka Wood led off the inning with a double to right field. After a sacrifice bunt and a walk, Delaney Wayland drove in the game's first run with an RBI single through the right side. Lauren Powers tacked on the only other Tarleton run of the game two batters later with an RBI infield single for a 2-0 lead.
 
Metro State answered in the ensuing half inning with four runs on four hits and an error to take a 4-2 lead. The Roadrunners tacked on one more each in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 6-2 advantage, which would hold up the rest of the way.
 
Tarleton's biggest threat to score came in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back, one-out singles from Powers and Melody Mayse and an error, but a double play grounder ended the game.
 
Mayse and Powers each had two hits for Tarleton, accounting for four the TexAnns' eight hits in the game. Mikayla Stogsdill, Wood, Wayland, and Avery Mullendore had one hit each to round out the offense.
 
Haley Freyman took the tough-luck loss after allowing six runs – only one earned – on 12 hits and a walk with five strikeouts.
  
In the second game of Friday's tournament opener, the TexAnns couldn't stave off a sixth-inning rally as an RBI single a pair of bases-loaded walks doomed Tarleton in a 6-4 loss to Chadron State.
 
The Eagles came out swinging by scoring first with three in the top of the first, but Tarleton's Alyssa Ringhausen came out of the bullpen after a leadoff error in the top of the second to keep Chadron State off the board for the next four innings. Meanwhile, the TexAnn offense came to life.
 
Tarleton broke through on the run column with a sacrifice fly RBI from Katelyn Conlee and an RBI single into right from Nyka Wood to cut the Chadron lead to one at 3-2 after three. Following a scoreless fourth, Tarleton took its first lead of the game on a 2-RBI double from Rebeka Allen to bring home Conlee and Stogsdill for a 4-3 Tarleton lead.
 
Chadron answered in the next half inning when the Eagles plated three runs on three hits and three walks – two which came with the bases loaded – to take a 6-4 Tarleton lead. The TexAnns loaded the bases with two outs in their half of the sixth, but a hard line drive into the shortstop's glove ended the threat. An Avery Mullendore walk would be all that Tarleton would get in the seventh.
 
Conlee and Powers each had two hits in the game for Tarleton while Mayse, Stogsdill, Wood, Allen, and Mullendore had one each to round out Tarleton's nine hits. Ringhausen took the loss after throwing 4.2 innings, allowing three runs on six hits, and striking out a career-high five.
 
Tarleton will return to action tomorrow with two games against Colorado State-Pueblo and Adams State, beginning at 10 a.m. in Canyon.