For the second time this season, East Texas Baptist University swept the University softball team (2-1 and 14-9) to improve to 4-0 on the year against the Patriots.
On Tuesday night in game one of the doubleheader, it was pitching duel between Lady Tigers’ Alicia Wright and Patriots’ Kelsey Ainsworth that led to an ETBU win.
Both pitchers went the full seven innings with Wright giving up one earned run in the seventh and Ainsworth giving up two runs, one in the third and the other in the fifth. However, the ETBU run scored in the fifth was unearned.
After scoreless first two innings, ETBU got on board in the top of the third on a single by Adrienne Meier, knocking in Dani Miller.
In the fifth, ETBU scored an unearned run after an error on Patriots catcher Brittanni Hanna that allowed Hayden Furlow to score.
Wright held the Patriots in check until the bottom of the seventh inning when they finally managed to knock a run in.
With one out and Sarah Isenberg on second base, Amanda Busby hit a sharp line-drive double to left field to cut the deficit to 2-1.
After a lineout to the pitcher to make it two outs, Megan “Roo” Richardson came up to the plate and was hit by a pitch, putting two runners on for Sara DeStefano. DeStefano then hit a fielder’s choice that the third baseman scooped up and forced out Busby at third to end the game.
Game two turned out to be nothing like the first game with both offenses’ waking up.
It did not take ETBU long to get going, scoring three runs in the first inning, knocking out Patriots’ starting pitcher Lauren Scruggs only two outs into the game.
Jessie Bross managed to come in and pitch one inning, giving up two more runs, extending the Lady Tigers lead to 5-0 after two.
Stacy Shepherd relieved Bross for two innings, only giving up one run before Kelsey Harrington took over with two outs in the fourth.
In the top of the fifth, ETBU knocked in five runs off Harrington to jump out to an 11-0 lead.
That is when the Patriots offense finally woke up.
In the bottom of the fifth alone, the Patriots managed to score nine runs while sending 12 batters to the plate.
Kaleigh Mushinski replaced Erin Garcia in the inning and gave up six of the nine runs, but only two of her runs were earned.
Harrington held ETBU scoreless in the sixth but gave up three runs in the seventh to make it 14-9.
The 14 runs were the most this season given up by the Patriots in a single game.
LeTourneau University and the Patriots were scheduled to play a doubleheader on Friday but it was postponed due to inclement weather. The doubleheader against LeTourneau had not been rescheduled as of press time Sunday night.
By Jeremy Cotham Sports Editor
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