Friday, April 24, 2015

PORTALES, N.M. — Junior Morgan Green (3B/DP, Carmichael, Calif./Del Campo HS/Sacramento City College) had two homeruns for the season, entering Friday's Lone Star Conference doubleheader against Tarleton State, but doubled that total with a long ball in each game. The Eastern New Mexico University softball team (16-32; LSC 3-23) dropped the opener by an 8-4 score and suffered a 16-5 setback in the nightcap.
 
The last player to hit multiple homeruns in a doubleheader was Erica Armendarez. She homered in the fifth and sixth innings of the second game in a doubleheader against New Mexico Highlands, early last April. Armendarez also was the last Zia to homer in both games of a doubleheader, coming on February 13, 2013, against University of the Southwest.
 
The teams will conclude the series on Saturday, with another doubleheader. The first contest is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. MT. Eastern will honor its six seniors between games.
 
Game 1
In the opener, the TexAnns capitalized on a leadoff walk to Melody Mayse to seize a 1-0 lead in the first inning. A two-run blast from Katelyn Conlee in the third inning staked TSU to a 3-0 advantage.
 
Jacqueline Candelaria (Sr., 2B, Los Lunas, N.M./Los Lunas HS) reached on a fielding error to lead off the Zia fourth inning and registered her second stolen base of the season to reach scoring position. She scored on Kyra Sirag's (Jr., DP, Garden Grove, Calif./Rancho Alamitos HS) two-out infield single.
 
Tarleton State plated two runs in both the fifth and seventh frames, sandwiched around a one-run sixth, to build an 8-1 lead. Simone Laurenz (Fr., Portales, N.M./Portales HS) sprinted out a leadoff infield single and took second on a base hit through the left side of the TexAnn infield from Susannah Chandler (So., SS, Farmington, N.M./Piedra Vista HS) to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Green followed by driving a 1-2 offering from TSU starter Haley Freyman over the left centerfield fence, to pull Eastern within four runs, 8-4.
 
The TexAnns held a 14-7 edge in total hits in the game. Green and Chandler both batted two-for-three. Freyman allowed three runs on seven hits to earn her 18^th win of the season.
 
Game 2
The nightcap started as a shootout, with Tarleton State scoring twice in the first inning. Eastern cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning on a two-out RBI single from Sirag and pulled even on a solo homer from Green in the second inning.
 
The TexAnns sent eight batters to the plate in the third inning and added three runs for a 5-2 lead, but Eastern bounced right back in the bottom of the frame. Candelaria walked to lead off the inning and took third on a when TSU was unable to field a ball off the bat of Audrey Velasquez (So., 1B, Las Cruces, N.M./Las Cruces HS). Chandler drove in one run and Aurelia Sandoval (Sr., RF/C, Farmington, N.M./Piedra Vista HS) followed with a game-tying, two-out, two-run double. Tarleton State plated 11 runs over the next three innings and the game ended in the bottom of the sixth, due to a lead in excess of eight runs.
 
The TexAnns held a 19-8 edge in total hits. Sirag batted two-for-three to notch her 15^th multiple-hit game of the season. Elizabeth Velasquez (Sr., 3B, Las Cruces, N.M./Las Cruces HS) also batted two-for-three. Shelby Hedrick went the distance for Tarleton State and scattered eight hits.
 
Notes
In the third inning of the opener, Sandoval tossed out a baserunner to register the 41^st runner caught stealing of her career. She holds the record by nine.
 
Sandoval also holds the ENMU career record for runners picked off at 13 and holds that record by seven.