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The No. 25 Lady Buffs had a weekend to remember during three days full of games at home and away.
The softball team started their weekend Friday night in Lawton, Okla., at Cameron University. The team started off with a home run to bring home two runners in the first inning before the game suffered a short rain delay going into the second. The Aggies cut the lead in half at the bottom of the second but the Lady Buffs used three more home runs with multiple runs in multiple innings to take the game with a score of 10-3.
Saturday’s doubleheader brought in the first of the Lady Buffs’ two records for the weekend. Kim LeComte brought in Meghan Slattery in the second inning to become the LSC career leader in RBIs. The game was a wild and entertaining seven-inning affair with both teams going back and forth in scoring.The game went down to the wire with the Lady Buffs holding a 20-15 lead in the top of the seventh. CU scored three runs before WT brought in senior pitcher Marci Womack to end the game with a score of 20-17. Adriana Garcia picked up the win in the circle.
WT made up for the close score in the second game of the day as LeComte brought in two runs on a homerun in the first inning. The Lady Buffs left the inning with a 5-0 lead. The Lady Buffs later took a 10-run lead but an error allowed CU to cut the lead to 10-1 in the fourth. WT quickly put Cameron out of their misery when Cranfill scored a grand slam to take a 14-1 lead in the top of the fifth. WT took the five-inning game 14-1 with Marci Womack picking up the win.
The Lady Buffs had less than a 24-hour break before they returned from Lawton, Okla., to play a double header against Texas A&M International University at Lady Buff Yard.
Mercedes Garcia recorded two homeruns in the first game. Garcia led the team offensively with three RBIs; four other players registered two RBIs each as well. Cranfill and Lemos also had homeruns during the game. TAMIU would score only three runs to WT’s 12, allowing the game to end after five innings.
In the second and final game, the Lady Buffs wouldn’t start rolling until the second inning with the first batter bringing in the second Lady Buff record of the weekend. Catcher Meghan Brown was walked by TAMIU, allowing her to take over the NCAA DII all-time leader in walks with 161. Brown’s momentum fired the team up, bringing in two runs in the inning.
“I feel good. I knew [the record] wasn’t going to be homeruns or anything like that, so it feels good,” Brown said.
The game went scoreless for three more innings before extending their lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth. TAMIU kept Adriana Garcia from recording a shutout with a run in the top of the seventh, but it wasn’t enough. The Lady Buffs closed out their weekend with a 4-1 win.
The weekend sweep takes the Lady Buffs’ record to 32-15 and 14-9 in the LSC.
The team only gets one day off before they return to Lady Buff Yard on April 17 to take on the Eastern New Mexico Zias for the second time in a week. The first pitch is set for 5 p.m. with a free concert featuring AJ Swope & The Last Train Home immediately following the game.
