TUSCALOOSA – Mired in a multi-game losing streak, the UT Arlington softball team (7-10) could not get past its pitching woes as the Mavericks dropped both of its games against McNeese (15-4) and #8 Alabama (11-5) in Day One of the Easton Crimson Classic in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Friday.
 
The Mavs came up short in game one against the Cowgirls by a score of 9-5 before falling 11-3 in five innings to the number eight nationally ranked Crimson Tide.
 
After a solid start to its season in the circle, UTA has continued to put itself in big holes with its troubling first inning issues. The Mavs have allowed its opponent to score at least one run in the opening frame in seven out of its last eight games, including today when Kenedy Hines got the loss after allowing McNeese to score five runs in the first inning before JoJo Valencia took the defeat following #8 Alabama tacking on two early runs.
 
The Mavs faced nearly insurmountable deficits in both games as the Crimson tide tagged Valencia for a crooked number of six in the second inning to jump out to an early 8-0 lead.
 
Although UTA's offense had started each contest off slowly, the bats eventually woke up in both games by the third inning when the Mavs put runs on the board for the first time in each matchup.
 
UTA recorded a more than respectable .320 overall batting average, thanks in part to senior second baseman Avery Grimes who finished 4-6 on the day, including a perfect 3-3 in game one against McNeese.
 
In fact, UTA saw three different players record multi-hit efforts in game one, including Madison Miller, KJ Murphy and the aforementioned Grimes. Senior first baseman Aileen Garcia was the only Mav to record a multi-hit game against #8 Alabama, coming up with at least one base-knock in both contests.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Grimes recorded her second three-hit game of the season against McNeese after she recorded a single and two doubles. The Keller, Texas, native finished game one with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored before crossing the plate one more time against #8 Alabama after she recorded her fourth hit of the day with a single. She now has a four-game hitting streak, breaking her previous mark of the three games she set opening the 2020 campaign.
 
McNeese out-hit UTA by only two base-knocks as two errors in the fifth inning allowed the Cowgirls to push 3 more runs across home plate.
 
Take away McNeese's five runs in the first, Hines gave up only one earned run the following four innings. She walked one batter while giving up three extra-base hits.
 
Sophomore Allie Gardiner gave up two earned runs over 3.2 innings pitched as she came in out of the bullpen in both games and didn't allow a single extra-base hit.
 
After Garcia's three hits on the day, she has now recorded at least one base-knock in 11 out of UTA's past 13 games.
 
Junior Amber Langston recorded her first RBI of the season when she laced a pinch-hit single to left field in game two.
 
Courtney Ogle recorded UTA's only extra-base hit against #8 Alabama with a double to left field in the second inning.
 
Kimber Cortemelia added onto to her team-leading RBI and run totals with another run batted in and scored against #8 Alabama after finishing game two going 1-3.

THE RUNDOWN – Game One vs. McNeese
After the Mavs were retired in order to start the game, Hines opened the bottom half of the inning by allowing five hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch to give McNeese a five-run advantage.
 
To her credit, the Spring, Texas, product bared down and pitched four scoreless frames the rest of the way. She ended up having a small hiccup again in the fifth when four more Cowgirls scored, but those crooked numbers can be accounted to the Mavs defense as it committed two errors in the frame, resulting in three unearned runs.
 
UTA got on the scoreboard in the third inning when two Mavs led off the frame with infield singles. After a sacrifice bunt, Whitney Walton knocked in the Mavs' first run with a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Reagan Hukill and cutting the Cowgirl lead down to four at 5-1.
 
The Mavs cut the lead down to three in the fifth when Grimes led the inning off with a double to right-center. After a Brittany Wyllie sac bunt and a Walton free-pass, UTA scored its second run on a double steal with Walton taking second and Grimes stealing home.
 
Following McNeese's four-run uprising in the bottom half of the fifth, UTA came back out in the top half with two singles, the first coming off the bat of Murphy and the second from Miller. One batter later, Grimes smacked her second double of the game, this time plating two runs. After a fielding error on the part of the Cowgirl shortstop, Grimes came in to score UTA's fifth and final run of the game.
 
Down by four in the seventh, Garcia tried to rally with a single to third base, but a double play promptly ended the inning and the game with a final score of 9-5.
 
THE RUNDOWN – Game 2 vs. Alabama
#8 Alabama did most of its damage in the first two innings as the Tide racked up eight runs before Valencia was eventually pulled after throwing 1.1 innings.
 
#8 Alabama's top of the order combined to go 8-9 across the four innings the Crimson Tide came up to bat. As a team, the Tide worked three walks and stole four total bases before finishing with a .545 batting average on the day after recording 12 hits in their 22 at-bats.  
 
UTA finished game two with a .304 batting average which included hitting .375 coming up to bat in two-out situations. The Mavs took advantage when they had runners in scoring position as the team went 3-6 in such situations.
 
UTA's big inning came in the third when they pushed three runs across the plate. Walton started the inning off with a single before Grimes reached on a throwing error. Cortemelia promptly stepped to the dish and ripped the first pitch she saw to left field, plating UTA's first run of the game.
 
Garcia then recorded a bloop single over the second baseman's glove into right field to load the bases before Murphy grounded out to record her second RBI on the season. Langston followed that up with a pinch-hit at-bat where she ripped a pitch to left field to score Cortemelia for UTA's third and final run of the game.
 
UTA would go on to record one more hit across two more innings before #8 Alabama run-ruled the Mavs by a final score of 11-3.
 
ON DECK
The Mavs will look to turn the tide tomorrow with back-to-back games against the same opponents they faced today as UTA will kick off Day 2 of the tournament with a tilt against McNeese at 11:00 a.m. before squaring off against #8 Alabama at 1:30 p.m.