The SHSU softball team brought their bats to San Antonio, collecting 38 hits and 35 runs in a three game series with UTSA this weekend. The Bearkats took two of three games against the Roadrunners.
SHSU defeated UTSA 16-1 and 8-6 in a doubleheader Saturday. UTSA came out and won Sunday’s game 12-11.
Chrissy Dileo and Lynne Tousek batted in four runs each in Saturday’s first game. Dileo went two for three and Tousek two for two. The Bearkats scored 15 runs in just the first, second and third innings.
“That’s a tremendous number of hits for a weekend,” said sophomore outfielder Lynne Tousek. “We are a power-hitting team, but we’re also a base-hit team.”
“It was a good team effort to get those runs in,” she said. Tousek’s home run was her first of the season.
Junior Rachel Atzenhoffer allowed only four hits and struck out four batters, facing only 22 hitters in the five innings she pitched.
Atzenhoffer is 7-9 for the season with 68 strikeouts. “I throw a lot this year,” Atzenhoffer said. “I’m pretty happy as far as my throwing.”
Rachel was a medical red shirt her freshman year and said she was in a lot of pain the following season. “I really struggled my first couple of years.”
“I learned to play with the pain and now I’ve been doing whatever I can to throw well,” Atzenhoffer said.
The Bearkats defeated the Roadrunners by 15 in the first game of the series.
Melissa Cosgrove led the Bearkats in Saturday’s second game, batting three for three with five RBIs including a home run and a double.
The game was tied going into the fifth, but SHSU scored three runs in both the fifth and sixth innings upping the score 8-2. The Roadrunners scored four more runs in the seventh, but not enough to top the Bearkats who won the game 8-6.
UTSA retaliated in Sunday’s game with a 12-11 win over SHSU.
“We struggled pitching a little bit,” Atzenhoffer said. “UTSA came out taking huge swings. We were throwing in the right spot at the right time for them, allowing them to get big hits.”
Batters for Sam Houston kept the game close.
“Our hitting definitely backed us up, but we came up short,” Atzenhoffer said.
A seven-run rally in the fifth threatened the Roadrunners’ lead. Elizabeth Magee, with two outs and two strikes, hit a three-run home run to stop a run-rule for SHSU.
Cosgrove had another successful day at the plate with five RBIs for the Bearkats.
UTSA held the Bearkats in the seventh preventing the sweep.
San Antonio has 62 home runs for the season. The Roadrunners hit six in Sunday’s game, two each for Christy Brownlee and Krystal Gibson, putting them within two home runs of tying UTSA’s home record of 64 set back in 2000.
The Bearkats are 10-11 in conference play and will head to Waco Thursday to play the Lady Bears from Baylor.
Sam Houston State will return to conference play this weekend at home against Northwestern State. Games begin Saturday at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday’s game starts at 1 p.m.