Box Score
DENTON, Texas — Two or three pitches were the difference.
St. Mary's dropped it's regional-final contest to Texas Woman's 2-0 on Sunday, failing to advance to the NCAA Division II Super Regional by the narrowest of margins at Pioneer Field.
The No. 6 Pioneers (49-12) scored all their runs on a two-RBI single from Lizzy Kelly in the bottom of the third inning, breaking open a scoreless deadlock in what St. Mary's hoped would be the first of two games to decide the regional crown.
Earlier, No. 25 St. Mary's (45-15) was unable to generate any runs in their best scoring opportunity, a misstep that would chase them the rest of the afternoon.
With the bases loaded and only one out, Texas Woman's pitcher Larisa Garcia got out of the jam by striking out a pair of Rattlers to end the inning.
"I just had to do my job," said Garcia, whose team advanced to the Super Regional to face St. Edward's. "Strikeouts were key, it kept our momentum up for hitters."
St. Mary's struggled to get another scoring opportunity like the one it had in the second, as Garcia limited the Rattlers to two hits and five strikeouts.
Christina Rodriguez (Sr., San Antonio) and Jared Gonzalez (Sr., San Antonio) each came away with one hit on the day, while ace Emily Brittain (Jr., Corpus Christi, Texas) was tagged for the loss despite striking out three and scattering just four hits on the day.
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.
