STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton welcomed Texas Tech to Stephenville Wednesday afternoon and the teams treated a sold-out crowd to an elite softball game, but the Texans ended up on the wrong end of a 3-2 score.
After Tristan Bridges went 1-2-3 in the opening frame, Morgan Medford kicked off the Tarleton offense with a leadoff triple. She came into score the first run of the game on a heads-up baserunning play from third when a pop-up to short and a brief stumble turned into a sacrifice fly for Amanda DeSario.
Bridges went toe-to-toe with Texas Tech starter Kendall Fritz, who entered the game having thrown a perfect game against Tulsa two outings ago. Texas Tech put up single runs in the third, fourth, and fifth to take a three-run lead.
On the first pitch of the fifth inning, Georgia Capell got to Fritz with her 58th career home run. Not only did it cut the deficit in half, but the home run tied Tarleton Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Cantu for the most long balls in Tarleton State University diamond sport history.
Kennedy Ferguson, who came on for relief in the fifth, set the Red Raiders down in the sixth and Tarleton threatened in their half with a runner on first and one away. A groundball to second with a pair of controversial calls on the base paths ended the threat and sent Tarleton into the seventh trailing by one. Tarleton went down in order to finish the game.
Medford (2) and Capell had Tarleton’s three hits for the day. Bridges went the first 4.2 innings while Ferguson threw the final 2.1 innings and struck out three.
Tarleton will return to WAC action this weekend with a three-game series against Abilene Christian in Abilene this weekend, beginning with a Friday night doubleheader.
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