By Brad Welborn, Northwestern State Assistant Sports Information Director; featured photo by Brad Welborn
ARLINGTON, Texas – Northwestern State was unable to overcome the long ball in a pair of losses on the first day of the Boerner Invitational.
North Texas (10-2) rode a pair of home runs in the first two innings to a 10-2 win in six innings with the host UTA (6-7) using a pair in the late stages to secure a come-from-behind 7-3 win over the Demons (1-11).
“North Texas is a really good team and we again showed moments of doing things well just couldn’t put it all together,” head coach Jenny Fuller said. “In the second game, I think we had an opportunity to beat UTA, but a few things just didn’t fall our way but we competed well. I told them that tomorrow is a new day and just to go our there and get after it.”
After winning the first game of the day against Yale in run-rule fashion, the Mean Green kept their bats hot early in their second game against the Demons, taking a 2-0 lead two batters into the game.
A leadoff double and home run to left accounted for the first two of four extra base hits for North Texas in the game. An RBI single three batters later put them up by three before the Demons stepped into the batter’s box.
North Texas did more damage in the second by cashing in a bases loaded situation with a two-out home run to center stretching the lead to seven after two trips to the plate.
The Demons responded with their best offensive inning of the game in the bottom of the inning.
Aly Delafield started with an infield single and moved to third on a base hit to right from Cameron Curtis, who advanced to second as the ball skipped away from the right fielder. Camryn Becnel delivered with two outs to cut into the Mean Green lead.
The freshman from Thibodaux lined the first pitch she saw into the left center gap easily scoring Delafield and Curtis with her first double and first RBIs of the season.
After allowing seven runs on six hits in the first two innings, freshman Brooklyn Stohler settled in to the game holding North Texas scoreless for three straight innings, only allowing one hit during that time. North Texas got a pair of runners on in the fifth due to a pair of Demon errors, but the inning ended on a ground ball to Cash Herber at second as she turned the inning -ending double play.
The Demons were unable to cut into the lead after the second inning, failing to get a runner aboard until an error in the bottom of the fifth. UNT took advantage of that fact in the sixth.
A string of five singles in the inning led to three more runs, giving the Mean Green the cushion they needed to complete the run-rule win over the Demons in six innings.
The Demons employed their short game against UTA, partly by design and partly by fortune, to take a second-inning lead on the Mavericks in game two.
With runners at second and third, after a walk and bunt base hit, the first in the career of freshman Sara Kate Booker, sophomore leadoff batter Sophia Livers hit a tapper up the first base line that she beat out for a hit allowing both runners to score on the play.
Bailie Ragsdale singled to third in a similar fashion as the Demons picked up three hits in the inning without a single one leaving the infield dirt. Of their eight hits in the game, six of them did not reach the outfield grass.
“Sometimes those hits just kind of fall your way and we haven’t seen much of that so far this year,” Fuller said. “It was fun for those to go our way for a change and get some base runners that way. We had some help in the game from UTA, we just have to put it away next time.
One of the hits that did reach the green came in the top of the fifth after UTA had just taken the lead on a bases loaded double down the left field line with two outs.
With Delafield standing at second base, freshman catcher Savannah Coleman lined a double to the left center gap to bring the run in and even the game at three each, subsequently taking starting pitcher Kaymie Chandler off the hook for the loss after her first quality start of the season.
Chandler put up three scoreless innings to start the game before her only blemish coming on the two-out double in the fourth. She finished with 4.0 innings of work allowing three runs on five hits.
“Kaymie did well,” Fuller said. “She kept us in the game for a while and I’m proud of her for that. For her it’s just about building her confidence up to where we can leave her in there longer in those kinds of games.”
The response from the Demons was immediately countered by UTA and again with two outs in the inning.
A walk put a runner aboard for the first of two home runs late in the game that gave the Mavericks the lead in the fifth, 5-3, and extended it in the sixth, 7-3. NSU got one hit from Becnel and a walk from Coleman following the fifth inning but were unable to turn them into any more run-scoring chances.
NSU finished play in Arlington with two more games on Sunday beginning with a 9 a.m. meeting with Yale and a 2 p.m. rematch with UTA.