Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
SAN ANTONIO — If the St. Mary's softball team wasn't already associated with blasts over the fence, it might be time to start thinking of them in that light.
The Rattlers smacked four home runs in Wednesday's Game One against Texas A&M-Kingsville, taking the game 7-1. St. Mary's hit another homer in Game Two, fighting to come back from an early four-run deficit to win it in extra innings with a walk-off RBI single, 7-6.
Jared Gonzalez (Sr., San Antonio) had the show in Game One, going yard in each of her first two at-bats for three RBI. Fellow home-run hitter
Christina Rodriguez (Sr., San Antonio) also went yard with a solo blast for her fourth homer on the season, only to prime the Rattlers for one more in the sixth with
Alex Rodriguez (So., Eagle Pass, Texas) pelting a two-run homer for her first home run on the season.
Six of the Rattlers' seven RBI in Game One came off the four homers, with
Taylor Vidrine (So., San Antonio) tallying the only non-home-run RBI with an RBI double in the third.
But Gonzalez wasn't done just yet, as Game Two saw another homer out of the first baseman. This time it was a three-run shot in the bottom of the third to bring a scoreless Rattler board to three to help St. Mary's inch within one run, 4-3. With her three home runs over Wednesday's two games, Gonzalez now leads the Rattlers with seven homers on the season.
A. Rodriguez's RBI single would tie it up 4-4 and end the Rattlers' comeback, four-run third inning.
The Rattlers (20-8) and Javelinas each scored again in the sixth to make it a tie ballgame once more, 5-5, taking it into extra innings. The Javelinas picked up a run in the eighth, but the Rattlers responded with two runs in their last at-bat, including a walk-off RBI single from Rodriguez to end the game.
“I can usually hit it pretty far,” said Rodriguez of her game-winning single. “So I just know I had to get it high and far. We had speed on the bases so I knew it was going to happen.”
As the reigning Heartland Conference Pitcher of the Week,
Emily Brittain (Jr., Corpus Christi, Texas) went the complete seven-inning game in Game One, recording her 10th win, only to record another in Game Two. Brittain allowed five hits over Game One, striking out three and walking one in her 27 batters faced.
Crystal Keller (Sr., LaCoste, Texas) had the start in Game Two, pitching two innings and
Maricela Bissaro (Jr., San Antonio) pitched 3 1/3 innings in relief. Brittain finished the game in her second appearance on the day, pitching 2 2/3 innings for her second win, improving to 11-2 on the season.
The five-hour matchup between the Javelinas has St. Mary's now 4-0 on the season against the Lone Star Conference contenders from Kingsville.
The Rattlers play their second doubleheader of the week starting Friday against Trinity University in San Antonio at 5 p.m.
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.
