SAN ANTONIO — Crooked numbers abounded at The Park at StMU on Friday evening as the St. Mary's University Softball team defeated #4 Angelo State 6-1 in the first game of a doubleheader before the Rambelles came back to win game two 13-4 in five innings.
The win over the ASU in game one is the highest-ranked victory for the Rattlers since they defeated #2 Texas A&M-Kingsville, 4-2, on May 13, 2022, in the NCAA Regionals.
The Rattlers move to 14-11 on the year and 9-5 in Lone Star Conference play, while the Rambelles are now 20-4 overall and 11-3 in league games.
St. Mary's returns to the diamond on Sunday when they host Lubbock Christian for a doubleheader beginning at Noon. The Lady Chaps split against St. Edward's on Friday afternoon.
GAME ONE RECAP (StMU 6, ASU 1)
All seven runs in the game were scored in the second inning. The 'Belles scored an unearned run off two hits and an error in the top half of the frame, but the Rattlers got out of the jam.
Junior
Emily Ayala (San Antonio) improved to 5-0 on the year after allowing one unearned run on five hits with one walk and three strikeouts. Both
Ariella Saenz (Pharr, Texas) and
Savannah Youngblood (Kingwood, Texas) pitched a scoreless inning in relief.
Senior
Lauren Gonzales (San Antonio) and sophomore
Gabriela Banda (San Antonio) recorded two hits each in the game, as the Rattlers scored their six runs on seven hits and were helped by a pair of ASU errors. Freshman
Miah Corona (Eddy, Texas) drove in three runs.
Senior
Lauryn Ramos (Marion, Texas) reached on an error by the right fielder and hustled under the tag at second base. Sophomore
Madison Magaro (Floresville, Texas) bunted for a single to put runners on the corners.
Jaylan Roberson (Elgin, Texas) bunted down the third base line, but the third baseman made a great throw home to get
Araceli Arevalo (Houston), who was running for Ramos, out at the plate.
Raegan Tennill (Corpus Christi, Texas) walked to load the bases, and
Abigail Dela Rosa (La Grange, Texas) hit a bloop single to shallow right field to score a pair. Gonzales placed the ball perfectly over the third baseman's head and out of reach of the shortstop down the left field line to score Tennill. Banda singled to short, and Corona blasted a ball to the gap in left-center to clear the bases and give StMU the 6-1 lead.
GAME TWO RECAP (ASU 13, StMU 4)
Angelo State jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, scoring one in the first and five in the second. The Rattlers plated two in the second and one in the third to cut the deficit in half, and each team scored once in the fourth, but the Rambelles broke the game wide open with six runs in the fifth for the 13-4 win.
Senior
Madeline Bloom (Poway, Calif.) lost just her second game of the year, while junior
Breanna Ford (Corpus Christi) returned from injury to work three innings in the circle and Youngblood pitched the final 2/3 of an inning.
Senior
Jadyn Abrego (San Antonio) was on base all three times, going 2-for-2 and getting plunked by a pitch. Ramos drove in half of the team's runs on her first home run of the year.
Abrego (San Antonio) led off the second inning with a single to left field after a long at bat, and Ramos hit her first home run of the season, sending the ball into the Rattlers' bullpen in left field.
With two outs in the third, Corona doubled to the gap in right-center and traded places with Abrego when she hit the opposite gap in left-center for the 6-3 tally. ASU pushed the lead back to four with one run in the fourth.
The Rattlers immediately answered with one run in the bottom of the fourth. Roberson reached on an error by the second baseman, moved to second on a pinch-hit single by freshman
Izabella Valdez (San Antonio), advanced to third on a bloop single down the right field line by Tennill and scored on a groundout by Dela Rosa. ASU pushed six runs across in the fifth for the run-rule victory.
