GEORGETOWN, Texas - Southwestern softball opened their season at home, falling 5-3 in the first game despite posting 11 hits to Mary Hardin Baylor while the second game was called after the fourth inning in a 2-2 tie.
Southwestern got the first base runner of the game, a single by Kaitlyn Pavlicek in the bottom of the first, but UMHB was the first to score with Tori Gomez's homerun to left field in the second to take and early 1-0 lead.
Karen Ramirez led off the bottom of the fifth with a double to left field, putting the first pitch in play less than a foot from foul territory. Southwestern wasn't able to take advantage, however, and entered the sixth inning down 1-0.
The Crusaders pushed another run across at the top of the sixth. A leadoff single by Caitlin Wells was followed by a well-executed sacrifice bunt by Kaysie Creech to move Wells to second. Bollier followed with a single to right field to drive in Wells safely, beating Pavlicek's throw home for the second run of the game.
Pavlicek opened the bottom of the sixth with a single to third base and Haley Hughes followed with a single to short and the Pirates saw themselves with a shot to tie the game with no outs. Pinch hitter Kaylee Kucharski did her job, driving in Blummer from second with a single up the middle to pull SU within one, 2-1, with just one out. The Crusaders got the next two batters to strike out and ground out to end the threat of a tie.
UMHB responded with a lead-off double from White and Neyland moved the pinch runner, Kunz, to third on a sacrifice bunt. Kunz scored on a wild pitch to give the Crusaders a two run lead again. Gomez's double brought in two more runs to move the lead to 5-1.
O'Connor started things off with a single to right in the bottom of the seventh and Tessa Galloway (pictured) drove the first pitch she saw into the left field foul pole for a two-run homerun to pull Southwestern within two, 5-3. Ashleigh Scott kept the comeback going with a single between first and second, just out of the reach of UMHB's Creech.
Two grounders from the next two batters ended the comeback as the Crusaders took game one, 5-3.
Ragsdale got the win, allowing three earned runs on 11 hits with one walk and six strike outs. Zearfoss garnered the loss by allowing five earned runs on nine hits, walking two and striking out six. Galloway, Pavlicek and Hughes all had two hits in the loss while UMHB's Gomez went 3-4 with 3 RBI's to lead the Cru.
Just as in the first game UMHB was the first on the scoreboard, pushing a run across in the second to take an early lead.
Southwestern responded with a walk to Scott followed by a perfectly executed bunt by Kucharski that nestled in the front of the left batter's box and the catcher's throw was late to second to try to get Scott. Ramirez's grounder advanced Scott to third who was brought home on an errant throw by UMHB's catcher on the attempt to throw out Ramirez stealing second. Ambrose's grounder went under the second baseman's glove to score Ramirez and give SU a 2-1 lead at the end of two.
The Crusaders pushed another across in the fourth to tie the game 2-2 and after a scoreless bottom of the inning the game was called due to rain.
Lyndsy Maus was strong in the shortened contest, allowing two earned runs on five hits while walking none.
Southwestern remains at home to face Our Lady of the Lake University on Sunday beginning at 1:00 pm.