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SAN ANTONIO – The St. Mary's Rattlers began Heartland Conference play against the Lubbock Christian Chaparrals, sweeping the Valentine's Day doubleheader at home.
Following a 4-1 victory in the first game, the Rattlers needed a walk-off hit from
Haley Richter (Jr., Hondo, Texas) in extra innings to put the Chaps away in the nightcap, 2-1.
Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, Richter and the Rattlers had one focus.
"We're not going into another inning," Richter said of the team's mentality, "we're going to end this."
However, all signs were pointing toward another inning when the first two Rattler batters were retired.
Following a single by
Katie Nichols (RS-Sr., San Marcos, Texas),
Taylor Vidrine (Jr., San Antonio) was hit by a pitch, setting the stage for Richter's game-winning hit to right-center field.
The two Rattler wins were highlighted by superb pitching from
Emily Brittain (Sr., Corpus Christi, Texas) and
Vianna Gutierrez (Jr., San Antonio), both of whom pitched complete games allowing only one run each.
Brittain improved to 7-2 on the season while Gutierrez, 1-1, boasts a 0.72 ERA over 19.1 innings pitched.
With the sweep of the doubleheader, StMU is off to a good start in Heartland Conference play.
"It's huge," said Richter, who totaled three RBI on the day, of the two victories. "It allows us to go into conference with that momentum, knowing that we're already 2-0."
The Rattlers look to improve their conference record when they finish their three-game series against the Chaps on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Softball Stadium inside The Park at St. Mary's.
Tickets are available at
StMUTickets.com. Fans can also watch the game live online on the
Rattler Network.
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.
