ARLINGTON – On the back of a big four-run first inning and seven strikeouts off the arm of
Allie Gardiner, the UT Arlington softball team (12-13) defeated Western Kentucky (20-5) by the score of 5-4 on Tuesday night at Allan Saxe Field.
Trailing early by two runs, UTA pushed its first run across on a bases loaded walk before senior utility player
Brittany Wyllie launched a bases-clearing double in the bottom half of the first inning to propel UTA into the lead at 4-2.
After both teams scraped across a run in the second inning, the two pitching staffs locked in to throw a combined three scoreless frames heading into the sixth inning.
Gardiner retired seven-straight batters at one point before finishing the game having given up just three hits over her four innings of work. The sophomore rung up seven batters and, in the process, picked up her fourth win of the season.
Freshman
Kenedy Hines came out in the sixth and finished off the Hilltoppers with the help of some great defense behind her and in front of her, as senior catcher
Reagan Wright made two huge plays in the sixth inning to snuff out a WKU rally.
Hines picked up her first save of the season, upholding the UTA win against Assistant Coach
Miranda Kramer's alma mater.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Wright finished the day going 1-3 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored. The base-knock extends her current hitting streak to four games. The senior captain also threw out her seventh baserunner attempting to steal a base this season.
Whitney Walton completed the game going 1-3 with a run scored. She stole her seventh base of the season and has now reached base in three straight games – her longest reached-base streak of the season is eight games. She remains in the lead with a team-best 23 base-hits.
Wyllie finished the game going 1-3 with the aforementioned double. The senior's three RBI mark the most for her in a single-game this season.
Reagan Hukill was the only Mav to record a multi-hit game as the freshman concluded the contest with a 2-2 batting line. She scored one run and now has four multi-hit performances this season.
Amber Langston and
Madison Miller both scored a run after they drew a walk in the first inning. Langston also finished the day with one RBI.
Kimber Cortemelia finished 1-2 at the plate with a single and a sacrifice hit.
Randi Phillips got the start in the circle for the Mavs and gave up two runs in one inning of work. Her last time out, she went seven innings to throw her first complete-game of the season to pick up a win against Troy.
Both UTA and WKU finished the game with exactly six base-knocks each. In games this season where UTA's and its opponents' hits were equal, the Mavs have a 2-0 record. The other time this happened occurred this past weekend against Troy when UTA defeated the Trojans 2-1 on Saturday.
UTA's pitching staff held the Hilltopper batters to a .222 batting average. Today's tilt marks the third game in a row where the Mavs' pitching staff has allowed only one extra-base hit through seven innings of work.
THEY SAID IT – HEAD COACH PEEJAY BRUN
"I'm really proud of the way my team played tonight. They showed fight when we were behind and stayed calm when [the Hilltoppers] were threatening to score."
THEY SAID IT – ASSISTANT COACH MIRANDA KRAMER
"That was a good win for us and our program. WKU is a tough win and for us to pull that off helps us going into more conference games this weekend. All around it was a good win for us."
"The pitchers are really stepping up when we need them to as a whole staff. Our hitters are doing a great job of getting us some run support and answering back when we need to answer back."
"Also, a special thank you to Coach Tudor and WKU for coming to Arlington to play us; it was awesome to see them and compete against my Alum!"
THE RUNDOWN
After allowing the first two Hilltopper batters to reach base, Phillips looked like she was on the verge of getting out of the first inning jam following two straight pop-ups to shortstop. Two singles and a walk later, WKU ended the first inning on top by two runs.
UTA's offense wasn't phased as the Mavs came out swinging.
Kimber Cortemelia led off with a single to left field before
Reagan Wright went the opposite way over the second baseman's outstretched glove for a one-out bloop-single.
After
Madison Miller worked a walk to load the bases,
Amber Langston stepped to the plate with two outs and followed suit with a free-pass of her own, helping score UTA's first run of the ballgame.
Now trailing by just a run, Wyllie worked the count to full before she crushed a Hilltopper pitch to deep left field. The ball ricocheted off the top of the left field fence and onto the warning track for a bases-clearing double to give UTA the 4-2 lead.
WKU came back out to the batter's box looking for revenge as the Hilltopper first baseman Maddie Bowlds smacked a Gardiner pitch deep to right field for the first home run of the game.
Now with the UTA lead down to just a run,
Reagan Hukill started the bottom of the second with a leadoff single. After the freshman managed to get on third base following a Walton single, UTA managed to scrape across another run, this time off the bat of Wright who hit into a fielder's choice RBI-groundout.
After giving up the Hilltopper home run in the top of the second, Gardiner mowed down seven straight batters, retiring the side in order in both the third and fourth innings.
Leading by 5-3 in the top of the fifth, Gardiner finally gave up a single. The Yorba Linda, California, product didn't falter though as she followed it up by getting the next three outs in order, two of them via the strikeout to finish with seven punch-outs through her four innings pitched.
The Hilltoppers eventually got to the sophomore in the sixth with the first two batters reaching base. Coach Brun brought in the freshman Hines and after a UTA throwing error allowed WKU to score a run, the Hilltoppers had runners on first and third with no outs trailing by just a run.
The senior Wright stepped up tremendously behind the plate for her team on the next two consecutive plays, the first coming off a runner attempting to steal second base.
Still with a runner on third, WKU tried to tie the game by attempting a squeeze-play with a bunt. Wright played it perfectly, catching the runner at third off guard in the middle of the base path.
Hines got the final out on a comebacker, sending the Mavs to the bottom of the sixth still leading by a run with a score of 5-4.
WKU retired the Mavs in order in the bottom half of the sixth, sending the Hilltoppers back out to the batter's box needing just one run to tie things up. After Hines struck out the first batter she faced, she induced two groundballs to retire the side in order.
Avery Grimes came up with
the final out, making one of the best plays yet of the season to seal the UTA victory.
ON DECK
UTA will travel to Louisiana-Monroe this weekend to take on the Warhawks for just its second conference matchup of the season. The three-game series will begin on Friday with a 6:00 p.m. first pitch before the two teams pick it back up on Saturday for a second tilt at 2:00 p.m. The Mavs will wrap up their trip to ULM with one final game on Sunday slated for 12:00 p.m.
