COLLEGE STATION – Tarleton scored four unanswered runs over their final two innings to complete a 6-2 victory.
“All in all, I’m happy with where we are after opening weekend,” said head coach Mark Cumpian. “We played hard all weekend. We have a few areas to clean up, but that’s to be expected this early in the season. Once we find our identity and come together as a team, we will be very tough.
“The next two weeks will be very exciting in Stephenville,” he continued. “We’ll have our home debut in our brand-new stadium with a lot of good competition coming to town for our Whataburger Invitational. Our team is excited to take the field in front of our home fans in our new place. It’s the kind of thing you really only get to be part of once or twice in your career, if you’re lucky, so we’re very blessed and excited for the opportunity.”
The final game of the Texas A&M Invitational featured a pair former conference foes meeting for the first time as Division I opponents.
Commerce struck for the first run of the game with a two-out single in the top of the first, but Tarleton answered back with two in the second, starting with an Austin Germain leadoff home run. The Texans loaded the bases with one away before Morgan Medford drove home Tristyn Trull to put the Texans up 2-1.
After the Lions tied the game on a solo homer in the third, the game stayed deadlocked at 2-2 into the Tarleton half of the fifth when the Texans turned on the offense.
Three straight singles loaded the bases with one out before Sage Harlow plated Bella Hernandez with an RBI fielder’s choice to begin the three-run inning. MacKenzie Peterson doubled to left field to score Trull and then Medford capped off the inning with an RBI single to short to put the Texans up 5-2.
Tarleton tacked on some insurance in the sixth when Brady Rowland drove home Katy Schaefer after the first triple of her college career.
Meanwhile, in the circle, Kennedy Ferguson danced out of danger all afternoon by allowing only two runs on 10 hits and stranding nine Lions on the basepaths. Ferguson struck out four and kept Commerce off the scoreboard over the final four innings.
Tarleton pounded out a weekend-high 12 hits, including four different players with two-hit performances: Medford, Schaefer, Rowland, and Peterson. Trull, Germain, Kelci Hill, and Kayla Wallace rounded out the offense with one hit each.
The Texans will make their home debut Wednesday with a 3 p.m. doubleheader against Prairie View A&M. Tarleton will have stadium cushion seats for the first 100 fans in the park as part of its “New Stadium, New Seats” promotion.
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