The Lady Tigers of Texas Southern University maintained their hold on first place in the Southwestern Athletic Conference's West Division after splitting Saturday's doubleheader with Prairie View A&M.
The Lady Tigers rolled to a 7-3 win in Saturday's opener, while the visiting Lady Panthers avoided a sweep with a 3-1 win in the finale.
TSU's Lauren Rodriguez pitched a complete game en route to the win in the opening game. Rodriguez struck out five batters and walked only two as she improved her record to 7-4 for the season.
Texas Southern (19-15) remains a half-game ahead of Prairie View A&M in the SWAC West with a 10-5 league record. The Lady Panthers (19-24) finished SWAC play with a record of 11-7.
The Lady Tigers took advantage of three PVAMU errors in the bottom of the first inning as four TSU players crossed the plate in the frame. Dominique Tello and Sierra Valdez collected the team's two RBIs of the inning.
TSU extended its lead with three runs in the fifth thanks to consecutive RBI base hits from Terren Vinson, Madilynn Marek, and Chanler Powell.
Marek went 3-for-4 with a double and scored twice in the opener. Vinson and Kelsey Riley knocked two base hits each, with Riley also scoring two runs.
In the second game, TSU's Jasmin Fulmore and PVAMU's Ashley Higgins matched each other in the pitcher's circle as both pitchers kept their opponents scoreless until the seventh inning. PVAMU finally broke through with three runs in the top of the seventh, two of which were earned.
Fulmore struck out five batters and allowed only four hits over seven innings, but took the loss snapped her streak of winning her last seven starts.
Trailing 3-0 in their last at-bat, the Lady Tigers immediately started a rally as Heaven Benavidez led off the seventh inning with a triple to right-center field. After Higgins retired the next batter, Benavidez scored on Jocilynn Ellis' RBI groundout to second base, but the Lady Tigers may have been shortchanged on the call at first, as Ellis seemed to beat the throw from the second baseman.
Undeterred, Riley and Vinson knocked back-to-back bunt singles to bring Marek to the plate as the potential winning run. Marek made solid connection with a 0-1 pitch, but lined out to PVAMU's third baseman to end the game.
The Lady Tigers will have six days to prepare for their final SWAC series, which starts Friday when the team hosts Grambling. TSU's scheduled doubleheader with Jarvis Christian on Tuesday was cancelled.
Posted By: How May I Help You NC
Monday, April 24th 2017 at 11:58AM
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