ARLINGTON – After failing to complete a comeback attempt in their first game against UTSA (9-4), the UT Arlington softball team (7-4) rallied with two home runs in the bottom of the seventh in their second contest versus Rutgers to win 5-4 in the Boerner Invitational at Allan Saxe Field on Friday night.
 
The Mavericks fell to the Roadrunners 8-5 in the first of back-to-back matchups on Saturday after UTA was held scoreless through the first three innings of the ballgame. After trailing 6-0 heading into the fourth inning, the Mavs finally began to find their swing as they put up five runs over the next three innings. Heading into the top of the seventh down just a run, UTSA put the game out of reach after they tacked on two more in the final frame.
 
UTA trailed Rutgers by a run after giving up a long ball in the top of the first, but the Mavs battled back to put themselves ahead 3-1 after the third inning. As they headed into the top half of the sixth, the Scarlet Knights came up with three runs aided by three hits and UTA errors. Still down by a run as they reached the final frame, Madison Miller stepped to the plate and blasted a rocket-shot over the center field wall to tie the score back up at 4 apiece. Two outs later, senior shortstop Whitney Walton sat back on a two-two count and launched the game-winning home run into left-center field.
 
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
Walton has now reached base safely in seven-consecutive games. Miller finished the game 3-3 at the plate and picked up her first stolen base of the year. Both Walton and Madison Miller came up with seventh-inning home runs, giving each of them two long-balls so far on the season.
 
After recording UTA's lone hit in its last game of the Maverick Classic against Kent State last weekend, Aileen Garcia's second inning single to left field against UTSA extended her hitting streak to six games, the longest stretch of the season for any Mav so far in 2020. Her streak ended in the Rutgers game as she went 0-3 at the dish.
 
Freshman Reagan Hukill recorded her third multi-hit game of the season with her two base-knocks against UTSA, the only Mav to do so in the first of back-to-back games on the day. Her fifth inning two-run home run marked the first of her collegiate career. After coming up with another base-knock in the second game, she's now recorded a hit in five out of the last six contests.
 
Catcher Reagan Wright recorded an RBI and a run across both games and stole her team-leading fifth base on the season. The Mavs stole a combined nine bases across both games.
 
Kimber Cortemelia's single in the fourth against UTSA and her base-knock in the third against Rutgers extended her on-base streak to seven games. The redshirt sophomore has reached base safely in every single game she has started so far to begin the season and has at least one hit in six of the Mavs' last seven games.
 
Along with giving up a season-high five free-passes, the Mavs conceded the most baserunners the pitching staff had allowed on the season with 15 total Roadrunners reaching base in the first game, surpassing the previous high of 13 in an extra-inning affair against Texas A&M on February 8.
 
After struggling in the first game, JoJo Valencia came back out in the second game against Rutgers and pitched 6.1 frames, the most innings she's thrown in game this season. The lefty gave up just one run on five hits and didn't hand out a single free-pass. She tacked on four strike outs and heads into Saturday with a 2-2 record. In the second game, the pitching staff came out and started hitting their spots as the team didn't give up a walk the entire ballgame.
 
 THEY SAID IT – HEAD COACH PEEJAY BRUN
"We were really fired up after struggling a little bit in the first game. We talked about making adjustments that needed to be made and I think a lot of the players took a few minutes between games to kind of gather their thoughts and figure it out. I felt like it was a totally different team in the second game."
 
"That was awesome for Maddie [Miller] to lead it off with that home run in the top of the inning and then to have Whitney [Walton] end the game like that was just perfect. Both of those hitters work really hard to try and improve their hitting every week; trying to get extra batting practice in to make sure they're ready for the games and both of them looked really good in those last at-bats."
 
THE RUNDOWN – vs. UTSA
 After recording the first two outs of the ballgame via a strikeout and fielder's choice, the senior pitcher Valencia ran into some trouble in the first inning. With a runner on first base, the lefty proceeded to give up a single and a hit-batsman to load the bases. After working the counts to full on the next two batters, Valencia couldn't find the strike zone and walked in the first two UTSA runs of the game.
 
Coach Brun inserted freshman Kenedy Hines for Valencia in the second inning and she came out of the frame unscathed, allowing only one batter to reach base via an error – only the third fielding blunder the Mavs have committed all season.
 
The Spring, Texas, native came back out for the third and allowed the first baserunner to reach with a free-pass before getting the next two Roadrunners to fly out. After hitting the next batter, she gave up a single to right field, allowing UTSA to score its third run of the game.
 
The Mavs themselves couldn't get anything going on the base paths in the first three frames, reaching base only once on an Aileen Garcia single to left field. Whitney Walton missed her second home run of the season by a couple feet in the third inning as a Roadrunner caught the short stop's fly ball with her back up against the left field fence.
 
Hines re-entered the game in the top of the fourth and let up consecutive singles before giving up a three-run home run to center field off the bat of UTSA second baseman Riley Grunberg. To the freshman's credit, she stayed in the game and bared down to record three-straight outs to get out of the inning.
 
Down six runs in the bottom of the fourth, senior third baseman Brittany Wyllie led off the inning with a free-pass before reaching second on a Cortemelia bunt-single. After both runners advanced a base – Wyllie on a Garcia sac-fly and Cortemelia on a stolen base – senior Reagan Wright drove in the Mavs' first run of the ballgame on a sacrifice flyout to left field to plate Wyllie from third.
 
Hines came back out in the top of the fifth and worked a quick one, two, three-inning, allowing the Mavs to continue to pick up on the momentum they were starting to build in the fourth.
 
Senior center fielder Melanie Mendoza promptly got on base in the bottom of the fifth with a lead-off walk, setting Reagan Hukill up with a runner on base. A few pitches later, the freshman unleashed into a pitch, walloping the ball over the left field fence for her first-career home run in a Maverick uniform.
 
With the score now 6-3, the next two Mavs got on-base after Whitney Walton recorded a single and Wyllie reached on her second free-pass of the game, setting up coach Brun to flash the double-steal sign. Both Mavs successfully stole second and third, but with one out, UTA couldn't push another run across in the frame.
 
With the Mavs making a push, Hines kept the Mavs in it with her second-consecutive three-up, three-down inning, sending UTA into the bottom half of the sixth still down only three runs.
 
With one out, the junior right fielder Miller got things going again for the Mavs, lacing a single to right field. After the speedy freshman Jadyn Erickson was inserted into the game as a pinch runner, UTSA recorded the second out of the inning before Mendoza stepped to the plate with Erickson standing at second base.
 
She swung at a pitch and smacked a double deep to left field, ricocheting off the outfielder's glove and onto the warning track. Erickson sped around the bases to score the Mavs fourth run of the contest. After Mendoza scampered over to third on a wild pitch, Hukill laid down a suicide squeeze, scoring Mendoza from first before reaching first on the bunt-single.
 
Down just one run heading into the final inning of action, UTA's comeback bid fell short as the Roadrunners tacked on two more runs in the top of the seventh before winning the game with a final score of 8-5.
 
THE RUNDOWN – vs. Rutgers
On a cool and crisp night, the Mavs had a quick turnaround as they ran the starting nine back out onto Allan Saxe Field 30 minutes after their previous contest concluded.  Valencia took to the circle once again for UTA and allowed the first batter of the game to pull a ball over the right field fence for the first run of the game. Valencia quickly settled down and sat the next three Scarlet Knights down in order.
 
After both teams went scoreless through the following six outs, UTA came back up to the plate in the bottom of the second inning still trailing by a run. With one out, Wright got the Mavs offense going with a single to right field.
 
Playing in her first contest since the opening weekend – due to an ankle injury suffered in practice last week – KJ Murphy laid down a sacrifice bunt and beat it out for an infield single. With runners on first and second, Coach Brun threw out her patented double-steal sign once again and the Mavs came up successful for the third game in a row.
 
Now with two runners in scoring position, Miller stepped to the plate and drove in Wright for UTA's first run of the contest. The next batter Grimes promptly lifted one to left field, allowing Murphy to easily tag up and score, giving the Mavs their first lead in either game of the day.
 
After Valencia got through her second-consecutive inning untouched, Hukill reached first base for the third time of the day. On back of Walton sacrificing her over to second, the freshman took off for her second stolen base of the day and her fifth of the season. As she slid head-first into the bag, the ball got away from the third baseman, allowing the Mansfield, Texas, product to scamper home for UTA's third run of the contest.
 
Now in front by two runs, Valencia sat the side down in order in the fifth before retiring seven-consecutive batters as she pitched into the sixth inning. With two outs, the lefty gave up a double and her fifth hit of the game. Allie Gardiner came into the game for her first action of the day and quickly retired the next batter to send UTA into the bottom of the fifth hanging onto a two-run advantage.
 
After the Scarlet Knights recorded three outs in the bottom half of the inning, center fielder Taylor Fawcet led off the sixth inning with a line drive just over the outstretched glove of the third baseman Cortemelia. The ensuing batter Gabrielle Callaway smacked a double to right field and on a UTA throwing error, Fawcet rounded third and brought Rutgers to within one run of the Mavs.
 
Still with zero outs, catcher Katie Wingert stepped to the dish and singled to left to tie the score up at three apiece. After Wingert was sacrificed over to second, Walton made an outstanding play on the run at short stop, only to one-hop the throw over to first base. The ball got away from Garcia and Wingert came around to score the Scarlet Knights' third run of the inning to put them back in front at 4-3.
 
Valencia came back into the game to get the final out of the inning. The Mavs couldn't get anything going in the sixth inning and headed to the top of the seventh still down by a run.
 
After Valencia got the first two outs, Walton came up with a brilliant play at short stop to end the inning and retire the Rutgers' side in order.
 
Still trailing, Miller stepped to the plate to lead off the final inning and blasted a rocket-shot to deep center field to tie the game at 4-4. Following two Scarlet Knight put-outs, the senior and captain Walton came back up to bat for the fourth and final time of the game. On a two-two count she laced the pitch to left-center, clearing the outfield fence with ease to complete the comeback and win the game with a final score of 5-4.
 
ON DECK
The Mavs will look to get back on track tomorrow with the first of two games set for a 12:30 p.m. first pitch against Kansas. The Jayhawks wrapped up the first day of the Boerner Invitational with a 1-1 record after falling to UTSA on a grand slam in the final inning to lose 8-7 before run-ruling Rutgers 10-1 through five innings in their second matchup of the tournament.
 
UTA's second matchup of the day will depend on how the team fairs against Kansas tomorrow as the final two matchups of the day will see the first-place team face the fourth-place squad before the second and third place schools square off in the final contest on Saturday.