The Bearkat softball team took two out of three games this weekend against University of Texas at Arlington at Bearkat Softball Stadium.
In the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday, Sam Houston State broke out in the bottom of the third inning to put themselves on the board. After a one-out single by third baseman Sarah Parich, Hailey Wiginton blasted a two-run homer deep over the left field fence to put the Bearkats up 1-0. Two batters later, DH Morgan Mikulin followed suit by serving up her own solo homerun to put the Bearkats up 3-0 at the end of the third.
Despite two-run innings at the top of the sixth and seventh for UT-Arlington to tie the game 4-4, the Bearkats stepped up in the bottom of the seventh.
After Wiginton led off with a single to right field, Casie Everitt hit a bunt single to put runners on first and second. Mikulin then came up and hit the game winning RBI single to score Wiginton, and give the Bearkats the win, 5-4.
Yet the Mavericks exploded in the top of the first inning to start the second game.
Lead-off hitter Katie Jones led off with a single and Rebecca Collom then hit an RBI-double to the center field fence to score the first run for the Mavericks.
After a double and a single scored two more UTA runs, Heather Fortenberry then hit a two-out double to score the fourth run of the inning.
Sam Houston State was able to cut the lead by two after an infield single by Kendra Spivey and an error on the Mavericks second baseman allowed Amy Brown and Ashley Nelson to score the only two runs of the inning.
The Bearkats tied the game 4-4 in the bottom of the fourth with Mikulin’s two run double, and eventually took the lead in the bottom of the fifth, 6-4, after Amy Brown’s solo homer and Parich’s RBI-double. The Mavericks’s Kristin Moore lined out to second base finish the game and hand the Bearkats the 6-5 win.
With the score tied 1-1 in the final game on Sunday, the Mavericks took advantage of a bases loaded situation in the top of the fourth when Samantha Chumchal hit a double to score two runs. Whitney Simpson then hit a sacrifice fly to center to give the Mavericks the lead 4-1.
After a two run inning to extend the lead 6-1, the Mavericks once again scored three more runs in top of the sixth after Collom’s two-run homer over center and Fortenberry’s RBI-single.
Despite Sam Houston scoring one run in the bottom of the sixth on Parich’s RBI-single, the Bearkats were defeated by the Mavericks 9-2.
The Bearkats had a .318 batting average against the Mavericks, totaling 28 hits in 88 at-bats. With the pair of wins, Sam Houston State improves to 18-17 for the season and 9-6 in the Southland Conference.