April 12, 2008
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Heather Fortenberry and Rebecca Collom homered and Laura Jones tossed a five-hit shutout as UT Arlington swept a Southland Conference softball doubleheader Saturday at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
The Mavericks (20-16, 14-9 SLC) extended their winning streak to eight games with their 6-2 and 2-0 victories over the Islanders (16-25, 6-14) at Chapman Field. The three-game series concludes Sunday at 1 p.m.
UTA never trailed on Saturday and has outscored its opponents 56-11 during the streak.
Collom provided all the offense the Mavericks needed in the second game with her eighth homer of the season. After senior Katie Jones reached on a fielder's choice, the freshman first baseman belted a two-out offering from Larissa Martin (7-11) over the fence in left.
Senior Laura Jones (5-9) struck out five and walked one in her third shutout of the season and lowered her ERA to 1.43.
In the first game, the Mavericks took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning. Sophomore Samantha Chumchal led off with a single through the left side. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by senior Brittany Stevens and advanced to third on a single up the middle by junior Christina Allen. Chumchal and Allen both came home on a double to left field by Katie Jones.
The Islanders answered with four singles in the bottom of the inning, but were only able to push one run across when Lauren Sanders scored on a base hit to left by Stephanie Estrada.
UTA made it 3-1 in the sixth inning when freshman Whitney Simpson drew a two-out walk and scored on Chumchal's double to left field.
Corpus Christi starter Margo Hurdt (4-5) retired the first two batters in the seventh, but Collom reached on an error by the third baseman and senior Amanda Swofford walked. Fortenberry followed with a three-run smash to center field, the sophomore's second home run of the season, to give the Mavericks a 6-1 advantage.
The Islanders managed to bring the tying run to the plate with four hits in the bottom of the frame, including an RBI single by Martin. But UTA starter Cara Hulme (11-4) got Hurdt to fly out to right field with the bases loaded to end the game.
