SAN ANTONIO – The Tiger softball team was swept by the University of St. Thomas in a Saturday afternoon Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader, losing 6-1 and 7-5.
Trinity dropped to 16-9 this season with the two losses, including a 4-2 record in conference action. St. Thomas, the defending SCAC champion, improved to 12-7 overall and 5-1 in SCAC play. The Tigers won the opening game of the series 4-3 last night.
St. Thomas opened the day with five runs in the first two innings to take control of the game early. Tiger starter
Cameron Bishop (Austin, Texas / Austin) was chased from the game in the second inning, falling to 5-2 this season with the loss.
Josephine Koelewyn (Reno, Nev. / Academy of Arts Careers and Technology) and
Heather Nugent (Huntingdon Beach, Calif. / Marina) came on in relief and allowed just one more run the rest of the way. The Tiger offense, however, was limited to just three total hits in the first game.
Angela Baltzell (Antioch, Calif. / Freedom) had two of those hits, going 2-for-3 in the game, while
Marina Delaluna (Concord, Calif. / Concord) went 1-for-3 and scored the only run for the Tigers in game one.
Megan Kriechbaum (Cedar Hills, Utah / Pleasant Grove) allowed five runs and struck out three batters over 6.0 innings as the game two starter, though just two of the runs she allowed were earned. Kriechbaum was charged with the loss and fell to 1-1 this season.
Jordan Arce (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Thousand Oaks) came on in relief with two runners on in the seventh, but she couldn't stop the UST rally to win it in the final inning.
Trinity got on the board first with three runs in the bottom of the first inning, with
Hannah Boudreaux (Pearland, Texas / Shadow Creek) driving in the first run, and an error by the Celts allowing two more to come in for an early 3-0 Tiger lead. St. Thomas tied the game with three runs of its own in the fourth inning, taking advantage of a Tiger error that led to all three runs.
The Tigers had runners on base in every inning after scoring three times in the first, but failed to change the board until the fifth.
Jordyn Williams (Clayton, Calif. / Clayton Valley Charter) doubled to lead off the inning, then scored the go-ahead run on a two-out RBI double from
Peyton Bowser (Arvada, Colo. / West) two batters later that made it 4-3 Tigers.
St. Thomas rallied with four runs on five hits in the top of the seventh to take a 7-4 lead. Koelewyn got a pinch-hit single to get the Tigers started in the bottom of the seventh, but the Celts got the next two Trinity hitters out. An error extended the game and put runners on the corners, which Bowser took advantage of by lofting an RBI single into left-center to make it 7-5, scoring pinch-runner
Ella Whitacre (Roanoke, Texas / Byron Nelson). St. Thomas got a strikeout to end the game after that, though, hanging on to win the game and clinch the weekend series.
Bowser wound up going 2-for-4 with two RBI in the game, while Williams was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
Samantha Tagawa (Agoura Hills, Calif. / Agoura Hills) also had two hits and a run scored in the second game.
Up Next
Trinity will continue SCAC play next weekend on the road, traveling to Irving, Texas, to take on the University of Dallas in a three-game series. The teams open the series with a Saturday evening doubleheader, beginning at 5:00 p.m.
