Trinity Softball Falls Against Ninth-Ranked Houston-Victoria

San Antonio - The Tiger softball team lost both games of a doubleheader against the NAIA's ninth-ranked University of Houston-Victoria on Thursday night, losing 3-1 and 6-4.

Trinity fell to 20-10 this season with the two losses, marking the first time the Tigers have lost back-to-back games since March 13 and 16 against nationally-ranked UT-Tyler and Central (IA).

In game one, UHV took the early lead with a run in the second, followed by two more in the third to go up 3-0.  The Tigers bounced back with a run in the fourth, but were unable to get any closer.

Five different Tiger players lashed hits in the game, with Lindsay Weyand driving in the only run with a fourth-inning single.  Weyand drove in Lauren Mercado, who hit a one-out double for Trinity's only extra-base hit of the game.

Sydney Friday took the loss in the opener, despite allowing just three runs on six hits, and striking out three batters.  She falls to 9-5 on the season with the loss.

In game two, it was Trinity that struck first, scoring a run in the second to pull ahead for the first time in the doubleheader.  Houston-Victoria quickly erased that with three runs in the third, but the Tigers roared back to tie it with two more runs in the bottom of the inning.

In the fourth, UHV took advantage of a Trinity error to score two more runs and take a 5-3 lead, and after the Tigers cut it to 5-4 in the fifth, the Jaguars finished the scoring with an insurance run in the sixth.

Mercado gave up six runs on seven hits through 5.1 innings of work, but just four of the runs were earned.  Friday finished off the game with 1.2 scoreless innings, allowing two hits, but recording four more strikeouts. 

Offensively, Mercado had two hits in the second game - including her second double of the day.  She also scored a run and drove in another. 

Kayleigh Kinlaw also collected one RBI, while Weyand came around to score once in the second game.  Also scoring runs in game two were Brooke Sanchez and Caitlynn Dykes.  Dykes had an 18-game hitting streak snapped in the opening game, which was the longest streak on the team this season.

Trinity travels to Conway, Arkansas this weekend to take on Hendrix College in a four-game Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference series.  The Tigers return home the following weekend to host Southwestern for a four-game conference series.