April 14, 2006

Box Score

It was pitted as a battle between the Southland Conference's top two pitchers in UT Arlington's Jill Garro and Texas State's Katie Ann Trahan.

Both pitcher's lived up to the hype but, Texas State strung together three of their five base hits for two runs in the top of the fifth inning while UT Arlington bats went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position as Texas State outlasted UTA 2-0 in the opening game of a three-game series Friday night at Allan Saxe Field.

Texas State (29-14, 15-1) won its 15th straight conference game while UTA fell to 25-14 overall and 13-4 in the league.

Trahan (17-7) allowed one hit and struck out eight in the complete-game win. Garro (15-8) struck out 10 in seven innings in the loss.

In the decisive fifth inning, Texas State got a one-out double to center field by shortstop Alex Newton. Ashton Peters followed with a sharp single to right field that Autumn Petrino bobbled, allowing Peters to reach second base while Newton scored for a 1-0 lead. Karen Taylor singled to score pinch runner Jetta Weinheimer from second base and the 2-0 lead.

Meanwhile, UTA worked Trahan deep into the count consistently in the first four innings, but Trahan was able to wiggle out of jams.

In the bottom of the second inning, an error by the Bobcats' Newton put Amanda Swofford on second base with one out. But Trahan got April Clougherty to foul out to left field and had Lacey Leadbetter ground out to Newton at shortstop.

In the fourth inning, Deejay Nelson opened the inning with a single and an error by Jill Kloesel to put Nelson on second base. Cleanup hitter Jenna Fortune fouled out to left field and Courtni Anderson and Swofford followed with back-to-back strike outs to end the threat.

The series ends Saturday with a doubleheader at 1 p.m.