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Box Score 2
SAN ANTONIO — In true Rattler fashion, a pair of home runs helped seal each game of Saturday's softball doubleheader for St. Mary's second sweep on the season.
St. Mary's defeated the University of Texas-Permian Basin 4-1 and 7-2 to remain undefeated in Heartland Conference play, improving to 6-0 in league play and 28-10 overall.
Haley Richter's (So., Hondo, Texas) solo bomb in Game 1 helped the lineup bat a cycle as
Shelly Lee Zawadzki (Sr., San Antonio) recorded a triple and
Taylor Vidrine (So., San Antonio) and
Alex Rodriguez (So., Eagle Pass, Texas) both smacked RBI-doubles in the seven-hit victory.
Maricela Bissaro (Jr., San Antonio) pitched the complete game, tossing seven innings with four strikeouts to improve to 3-2 on the season.
Christina Rodriguez (Sr., San Antonio) went yard in Game 2, blasting a three-run homer in the fourth to total four RBIs for the game. C. Rodriguez had a sacrifice fly in each game, ending the doubleheader with five RBIs. The eight-hit, Game 2 victory also saw power in
Nicole Sardelich (So., Angleton, Texas), who went 3 for 4 with three runs including her 16th double on the season, while Vidrine flashed speed, stealing two bases.
Emily Brittain (Jr., Corpus Christi, Texas) had the win in Game 2, tossing four innings for a 16-3 record on the season.
Crystal Keller (Sr., LaCoste, Texas) pitched three innings in relief, striking out four.
With the sweep over UTPB (8-25, 4-5 in conference), the Rattlers are sitting at No. 1 in the league with their clean conference record.
“It's great getting a 6-0 start,” said Zawadzki, who totaled three hits for Saturday's doubleheader. “And we just want to keep this pace going. And keep going into conference games as well as take care of games that are out of our conference so we can help our regional ranking.”
St. Mary's has shown it can win at home with all six league wins coming with home-field advantage, but this weekend's series marked the last series at home until the Rattlers' very last series of the season at the end of April.
“At this point in the season we are kind of used to those long road trips,” said Zawadzki of the Rattlers' upcoming one-month road trip. “But it's one of those things that we know we have to take care of business when we get there. When we have the chance to practice, we know that everything is just essential.”
St. Mary's will play cross-town rival Incarnate Word on Tuesday, starting a doubleheader at 5 p.m. at Cardinal Field in San Antonio.
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.
