CONROE – Tarleton Softball suffered a sweep on day one of the Blizzard Challenge at The Scrapyards in Conroe Saturday with losses to Wichita State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Game 1: Wichita State 9, Tarleton 3
Despite outhitting the Shockers, Tarleton suffered a 9-3 loss in the season opener.
Wichita State jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three innings before Tarleton cracked the scoreboard with two in the fifth on RBI singles from
Morgan Medford and
Katy Schaefer.
Tarleton couldn't answer with a shutdown inning as the Schockers put up a three spot in the fifth and one in the sixth while the Texans could only produce one more run on an RBI single from
Alexis Hoang in the sixth from bring home
Shelby Carter.
The Texan offense accounted for nine base hits in the game, including two-hit performances by Schaefer and
Jordan Dickerson in their Tarleton debuts. Medford,
Destiny Crumpley, Carter,
Hallie Saintignan and Hoang had one hit each for the Texans.
In the circle, Tarleton allowed seven free passes and two hit batters to account for nine free base runners to go along with the Shockers seven base hits in the game.
Game 2: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 13, Tarleton 3
In the Tarleton nightcap, walks and errors doomed Tarleton in the late innings as the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders pulled away with 13 runs over the final two innings.
Tarleton jumped out to an early lead, which was sparked by a leadoff triple from Medford. Two batters later, Schaefer drove her home to put the Texans up 1-0. Tarleton added another one in the second by capitalizing on an error that allowed Saintignan to cross the plate for a 2-0 lead after two.
Meanwhile, Tarleton starter
Tristan Bridges was dancing around danger and kept the Islanders off the board through the first three innings, but Corpus Christi's offense came to life with two outs in the fourth with a walk, single and an RBI double to force a pitching change.
The Islanders went on to tack on six more unearned runs in the inning on a walk, two hit batters, an error and two base hits. They would go on to score five more runs in the fifth on just three hits, three walks and an error while the Texans could muster only one more run in the game.
Medford enjoyed a multi-hit performance in the leadoff spot, going 2-3 with a run scored while Schaefer, Carter and Saintignan had one hit each to round out Tarleton's five-hit effort on the day.
Tarleton will return to action tomorrow at 1:15 p.m. against future WAC rival Lamar and will close out the Blizzard Challenge against No. 11 Oklahoma State at 5:45 p.m. The game against Lamar will not have live coverage available. There will be live stats against Oklahoma State.
