CONROE – Tarleton rallied from a first-inning deficit to blow past Henderson State and improve to 3-0 before suffering a 3-2 setback to No. 14 Southern Arkansas in the second game of the Winter Invitational Saturday at the Scrapyards.
Game 1: No. 21 Tarleton 12, Henderson State 5
Henderson State came out swinging and scored four runs over the first two innings, but Jordan Withrow settled things down out of the bullpen and the offense came to life over the final four innings as the Texans opened the season with a 3-0 mark in a 12-5 win.
After the Reddies put up three in the opening frame, Tarleton stole its first run of the game in literal fashion as Morgan Medford and Georgia Capell pulled off the double steal from first and third. Then Shelby Carter plated Medford with an RBI triple to right to cut the deficit back to one.
Henderson tacked on one more in the second to lead 4-2, which stood until the bottom of the third when the Texans blew the game wide open.
After Tarleton loaded the bases with one out, Morgan Ling got the offense started with an RBI single to center. Kadyn Kirkpatrick wore a pitch to plate a run and Kristen Zuehl drove in the third run of the inning before a Reddie miscue allowed to more runs to come across and cap off a five-run inning that gave Tarleton a 7-4 lead.
The Reddies scored their final run of the game in the fourth but Tarleton answered with an RBI single from Carter in the bottom of the fourth, solo home runs from Georgia Capell and Destiny Crumpley, and one more unearned run on an error to complete the scoring.
Capell and Carter each boasted three-hit performances while Medford and Ling also had multi-hit efforts with two hit performances. Crumpley and Zuehl added one hit each to round out the 12-hit attack.
Julia Wernet started and recorded one out before giving way to Jordan Withrow, who earned the win in relief with 6.2 innings of work while allowing two runs on three hits and striking out eight.
Game 2: No. 14 Southern Arkansas 3, No. 21 Tarleton 2
Tarleton dropped a nailbiter to Southern Arkansas 3-2 in a battle of nationally-ranked teams to close out Saturday’s action.
After Southern Arkansas scored in the top of the first, Tarleton answered right back with back-to-back, two-out RBI singles from Shelby Carter and Morgan Ling to put Tarleton on top 2-1 after one.
Southern Arkansas took the lead with two more in the third, which would ultimately decide the game. Tarleton wasn’t without chances, though, as the Texans stranded two runners in each inning from the second through the fifth and left the bases loaded in the sixth. Jessica Lee walked with two outs in the seventh but Tarleton couldn’t extend the game.
Tristan Bridges took the tough-luck loss despite a complete-game performance. The sophomore southpaw struck out five for Tarleton.
The offense recorded their fourth consecutive 10-hit performances – cracking double digits in the hit column in every game thus far. Tarleton got two hit efforts from Hallie Saintignan, Georgia Capell, and Ling. Morgan Medford, Destiny Crumpley, Carter and Lee had one hit each to round out the 10-hit game.
Tarleton will close out their opening weekend tomorrow with games against the No. 1 and 2 teams in the NFCA national poll. The Texans will play No. 2 Texas A&M-Kingsville at 10 a.m. before closing it out against the defending national champion Augustana Vikings at 3 p.m.
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