LAREDO, Texas – The Rogers State softball team dropped both games of a doubleheader at Texas A&M International Friday afternoon, 8-5 and 6-1, at Dustdevil Field.
Katelyn Gamble and
Jamie Kowalick led the offense going 3-for-8 at the plate, while
Malori Moss and
Katlin Alexander hit home runs in the opener.
GAME ONETAMIU scored seven runs in the first inning and held on for an 8-5 win in the Heartland Conference opener for both squads, despite RSU out-hitting its opponent, 8-6.
The Dustdevils scored seven runs on three different Hillcat pitchers in the first inning. A lead-off double from Taylor Vines opened the frame before a home run by Brenda Parnin into left center. Vines added a bases-clearing triple plating three runs as TAMIU struck for a 7-0 lead.
RSU countered with a two-run home run of its own in the second inning as Alexander drew a walk to start the inning. Moss stepped to the plate and launched her second home run of the season as the Hillcats started to chip away at the deficit, trailing 7-2.
Back-to-back, one-out singles by Kowalick and
Morgen Blanchard in the top of the third put runners on base, but TAMIU retired the next two batters holding its lead until the fifth.
Ashleigh Stidman led the fifth with an infield single and Gamble followed with a bunt single. Kowalick loaded the bases on the third-consecutive single before a two-out, RBI single off the bat of
Courtney Davis made it a 7-3 ballgame, only to have the Cats leave three runners stranded.
TAMIU got an unearned run in the sixth before RSU capitalized on a two-out error for two runs in the seventh. Alexander blasted her fourth home run of the year and third in three-straight games for the final score, 8-5.
GAME TWO A four-run third inning and two more runs in the fourth haunted the Hillcats in the Friday finale falling 6-1 to the Dustdevils.
RSU put runners on base in each of the first three innings, but could not score before TAMIU struck for four runs in the bottom of the third. Just like game one, Parnin hit a two-run home run following a Vines double, and the home side tacked on two unearned runs later in the inning.
The margin stretched to 6-0 in the fourth on an RBI single from Vines and a RBI groundout by Parnin, her third RBI of the game. The pair combined for five runs scored and nine RBI going 9-for-15 at the plate in the doubleheader.
The Hillcats had a chance to get back into the game in the top of the fifth as
Randye Sharp was hit by a pitch with one out. Gamble followed by reaching on an error and Kowalick loaded the bases on an infield single. Alexander was beaned plating one run, but RSU could not do any more damage leaving the bases loaded as TAMIU closed out the 6-1 win.
The Hillcats (6-11, 0-2 HC) close the weekend series with game three against the Dustdevils Saturday starting at noon in Laredo, Texas.
