Box Score
WICHITA FALLS, Texas — Minus the sting, of course, this might go down as the easiest game-winning RBI of
Taylor Vidrine's career.
With the bases loaded in extra innings, the St. Mary's sophomore brought in the winning run of a 3-2 victory over No. 23 Abilene Christian by getting hit by a pitch in the bottom of the eighth Saturday.
The play allowed
Nicole Sardelich (So., Angleton, Texas) to score the winning run for the Rattlers (17-8), who bounced back from losing earlier in the day 8-0 in five innings to host Midwestern State at the MSU Tournament.
Against Abilene Christian (12-8), St. Mary's picked more conventional ways to score its first two runs.
Jared Gonzalez (Sr., San Antonio) blasted a solo shot in the first inning and
Sarah Perez (Sr., San Marcos, Texas) hit a solo home run in the fifth, the latter of which tied the game at 2-2 after ACU grabbed a 2-1 lead in the fourth off a two-RBI single from Heather Peacock.
Crystal Keller (Sr., LaCoste, Texas) pitched three innings in relief to get the win, improving to 3-0 on the season in the process.
Emily Brittain started the game and pitched five quality innings for the no-decision.
For as hot as the Rattlers' bats were against Abilene Christian, they were equally as cool against Midwestern State earlier in the day, failing to record a hit in the 8-0 loss.
Vianna Gutierrez, the Heartland's reigning Pitcher and Hitter of the Week, struck out one in 3 1/3 innings of work as she was tagged with the loss.
St. Mary's will wrap up the MSU Tournament with a 9 a.m. game against Emporia State on Sunday.
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.rattlerathletics.com.
