Softball Extends Streak to Three in Tournament Finale

CONROE – A big fourth inning helped lift the St. Mary's University Softball team to its third-straight win, 5-3 over Cal Poly Humboldt on Sunday in the team's final game of the DII First Pitch Invitational.
 
The Rattlers (3-2) plated four runs in the third inning after scoring once in the second. CPH scored first with one in the first inning and tried to come back with two in the bottom of the seventh, but the Gold and Blue were able to get out of the jam and bring home the victory.
 
Sophomore pitcher Breanna Ford (Corpus Christi, Texas) won her third-straight outing. She allowed only one earned run on three hits, walking one and striking out five in her second start of the year. The transfer needed only 85 pitches to improve to 3-0.
 
Junior Jadyn Abrego (San Antonio) worked a nine-pitch walk to begin the top of the second inning with the Rattlers trailing 1-0. Abigail Dela Rosa (La Grange, Texas) pinch ran and the fleet-of-foot sophomore promptly stole second base. An Ericka Gomez (Stafford, Texas) single up the middle plated Dela Rosa and knotted the score at 1-1.
 
Ford retired the side in order in the bottom of the second, getting her offense right back to work. Senior Mackenzie Dugi (St. Hedwig, Texas) walked to lead off and scampered to third on a single through the right side off the bat of Destiny Salinas (San Antonio). Salinas swiped second base and sophomore Raegan Tennill (Corpus Christi) singled to center to score Dugi. Sophomore Arianna (AJ) Sanchez singled to second, reaching on an error by the first baseman and both runners scored for the 4-1 advantage. With one out, both Gomez and senior Reba Reyes (Brownsville, Texas) walked. Two batters later, junior Lauryn Ramos (Marion, Texas) also walked, walking in the fifth run of the game.
 
The teams went without scoring until the bottom of the seventh when Humboldt scored two, but Ford induced a groundout to finish things off.
 
Tennill was 2-for-4 on the day with a run scored and an RBI to pace the Rattlers. The team scored five runs on six hits, drew five walks, and stranded four runners on base.
 
St. Mary's remains on the road but plays a little closer to home on Tuesday when they travel to unanimous preseason SCAC favorites, Texas Lutheran. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 5 p.m.