TexAnns upset No. 6 WTAMU again for third straight win over top 10 foe

Advertisement
Tarleton State is all smiles after back-to-back Lone Star Conference softball wins over a nationally-ranked opponent. || Courtesy Tarleton Athletics

STEPHENVILLE (March 4, 2017) – Haley Freyman and the TexAnns were back at it Saturday afternoon as Tarleton won its third straight game over a national top 10 opponent with a 7-3 victory over No. 6 West Texas A&M to claim the series.

The rain came down during and after, however, and forced the final game of the series to wait until Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.

“We did a great job of pushing runs across in the first inning and, once again, Haley kept them off balance,” said head coach Mark Cumpian. “I’m proud of how we competed, but now we need to stay focused as we go for the sweep tomorrow.”

Tarleton handed West Texas A&M its first Lone Star Conference series loss since April 25-26, 2015.

Freyman earned her second straight complete game win over the Buffs as the junior right-hander improved to 8-4 on the season with seven innings of work, over which she allowed three runs on nine hits and five walks while striking out four. This effort followed up her masterful performance against WT last night when she shutout the No. 3 hitting offense in the nation in a 1-0 Tarleton win.

Her offense came to work early with a five-run, two-out rally in the bottom of the first.

Nyka Wood sparked the rally with a two-out single before Savannah Stech and Kadyn Kirkpatrick loaded the bases with a single and a hit by pitch to set up Megan Durante for an RBI opportunity. Durante cashed in after working the count to full and taking an RBI hit by pitch to put Tarleton on the board.

The TexAnns kept things rolling when Kaitlyn Thomas dropped in a two-RBI single down the left field line to plate Stech and Kirkpatrick. Tarleton added another run on a single off the bat of Marisa Flores before Meghann Wrinkle‘s RBI single into center field capped off the five-run bottom of the first.

West Texas A&M answered with a three spot in the top of the second, but that is all the Lady Buffs would get against Freyman as the Tarleton righty posted goose eggs over the next five innings. Her offense supplied a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth on a WT error and an RBI single from Nyka Wood for the final run of the game.

Wood led the charge at the dish, going 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Thomas was 2-for-4 with a run scored and a team high two RBIs while Flores also had two hits. Stech, Durante, and Wrinkle had one hit each to round out the Tarleton 10-hit attack off WT’s Kilee Halbert.

The TexAnns and Lady Buffs will wrap up the series at 1 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.


Advertisement

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.