ABILENE, Texas – The Trinity softball team was edged in a pair of one-run losses at Hardin-Simmons University on Saturday afternoon, finishing off the opening weekend of the 2023 season.

The Tigers fell to 0-4 with all four defeats coming by a single run, while the Cowgirls improved to 4-0 on the year with the doubleheader sweep. The opening game was a 12-11 slugfest that took nine innings to decide the winner. Game two was more of a pitcher's duel and wound up as a 3-2 final.

Trinity led 7-2 early in the first game of the day and still held an 8-5 advantage heading into the bottom of the seventh. Hardin-Simmons rallied with two outs and a three-run homer tied things up to send the game into extra innings. The Tigers scored the go-ahead run in the eighth, but couldn't hold onto the lead once again as the Cowgirls took advantage of a two-out error to tie the game again. Trinity scored twice in the ninth after Hardin-Simmons committed a costly error of its own. The home team rallied once more in its last at-bat, plating three runs to pull off the win.

The Tigers also took the early lead in game two with a pair of runs, but Hardin-Simmons once again rallied in the later innings to steal the win. The Cowgirls scored once in the sixth and twice in the seventh to finish off the day's action.

Marina Delauna (Concord, Calif. / Concord) paced the offense in the opening game with four hits and four runs scored and two RBI. She hit her first home run of the season in the sixth inning – a solo shot that led off the inning and put Trinity up 8-4 at the time. Jessie Lloyd (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. / Trabuco Hills) also had a double among her three hits in the game, while Brooke Porter (Carmel, Ind. / Heritage Christian) suffered the loss in relief.

Carsyn Lee (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound) picked up half of the team's four hits in the second game and collected the only RBI of the game as well. Emery Boettcher (Fredericksburg, Texas / Fredericksburg) went the distance and was charged with the loss to fall to 0-2 this season.

The Rundown: Game 1
Trinity opened the game with back-to-back one-out hits, but it was Hardin-Simmons that got the scoring started in the bottom of the first. A leadoff walk led to an RBI double and a sacrifice bunt made it 2-0 after one inning of action. Delaluna led off the second with her first hit of the game, then scored the first run on a wild pitch. Lee drove in the tying run later in the inning as the two teams were locked up at 2-2 after two.

Dawson Dabboussi (Dallas, Texas / Highland Park) smashed a pinch-hit two-run double to left-center to give Trinity the lead in the top of the fourth, then Trinity added three more tallies in the inning to take a 7-2 lead. The Tigers had five hits in the inning and took advantage of a pair of errors by the Cowgirls to put up the big inning. The third Hardin-Simmons hit of the fourth inning drove in two runs to trim Trinity's lead to just 7-4 at the time, but Delaluna led off the top of the fifth with a solo homer to make it 8-4. The Cowgrils got that run back with three more hits in the sixth inning and Porter was able to limit the damage to just one run.

In the bottom of the seventh, Trinity got the first two batters out before a single and a hit batter set up the three-run homer to tie the game 8-8 after regulation. Lloyd followed Delaluna's single with a sacrifice fly and Trinity was back in front 9-8 heading into the bottom of the eighth. A two-out error kept the game going as Hardin-Simmons tied things up on the play. Delaluna scored on an error in the ninth to put the Tigers in front again, but this time it was a two-run lead after Alexa Saucedo (Harlingen, Texas / Harlingen) drove in a run later in the inning to make it an 11-9 advantage. Instead of allowing Trinity to close out the game with a win, Hardin-Simmons started the ninth with two hits and a sac bunt to draw within one. A run-scoring double tied the game, then a wild pitch two batters later brought home the winning run. 

The Rundown: Game 2
The second game scoring began with Trinity stringing together a pair of hits and an error to take a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Hardin-Simmons got its first hit of the second game in the bottom of the fifth, then had three hits and a sacrifice fly in the sixth to make it a 2-1 game in favor of the Tigers.

Hardin-Simmons loaded the bases in the seventh with three straight hits to start the inning. The Tiger defense cut down a runner at the plate for the first out, but a two-run double followed and ended the game.

Up Next
The Tigers will be back on the road next weekend for an East Texas swing across the state, facing off against 15th-ranked East Texas Baptist University in Marshall on Saturday afternoon, followed by a Sunday afternoon twinbill against LeTourneau University in Longview.