ARLINGTON – In its conference-opener, the UT Arlington softball team (9-13) dropped the first of a three-game series against Troy (15-4) by the final score of 11-2 on Friday night at Allan Saxe Field.
Just like in its previous 1-0-win against Baylor, the Mavs looked to be in another pitcher's duel tonight before the floodgates opened in the top of the fourth inning when the Trojans put together three consecutive three-run innings to go up 9-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth.
UTA faced off against Leanna Johnson, Troy's pitcher who came into the game ranking sixth nationally in strikeouts while sitting atop the national rankings in shutouts with six.
As Johnson looked to be on the brink of further increasing her shutout total,
Reagan Wright finally got to the sophomore for a two-run bomb to left field in bottom of the sixth inning.
With UTA now trailing 9-2 in the top of the seventh, Troy recorded its fourth home run of the contest to win by a final score of 11-2.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Kenedy Hines (2-3) went home with the loss after giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits and a hit-batsman.
Facing a pitcher who came into the contest striking out opposing batters at a 40 percent rate, the Mavs struck out in five at-bats all game and only four times against Johnson.
UTA came up with only two hits all night, but they got on base seven more times via free-passes handed out by the Trojan pitching staff. The seven walks account for the second most in a game this season for UTA.
Kimber Cortemelia recorded three walks – the most in a single-game by any Mav all season – and now leads the team with 11 on the year.
Troy totaled four taters in the game, the most the Mavs have given up in a single contest all season. The previous high was two home runs on four separate occasions.
The Trojans have now defeated UTA in seven-straight games dating back to 2018.
THEY SAID IT – HEAD COACH PEEJAY BRUN
"As a coaching staff, we need to do a better job of getting our players prepared. I feel like they came out here and gave their best effort, but we obviously didn't have the right game plan. We're going to have to watch some video tonight, do some different things and make sure that we go into tomorrow's game with the right plan."
THE RUNDOWN
It looked like Hines was still on cruise-control from the complete-game shutout she threw on Tuesday night against Baylor as she escaped the first three innings of tonight's game by allowing only two base-hits without giving up a single run.
The Trojans made her shift gears in the fourth though after leading the inning off with a single before an errant throw on a double-play attempt put two runners on base with zero outs. After a single loaded the bases, Kaylee Chapman sliced a pitch down the right field line to score the first two Trojan runs of the game.
Still with zero outs and runners now at first and third, Coach Brun went to her bullpen to bring in the lefty
JoJo Valencia. Troy tacked on one more run to make the score 3-0 before the senior struck out the next batter and induced a groundout to get out of the inning.
The Trojans blew the game open in the fifth inning when Valencia gave up a two-run home run followed by a solo-shot to deep center field putting Troy ahead 6-0.
After the Mavs were retired in order in the bottom of the fifth, Troy added on to its lead with its third home run of the game, this time a three-run blast off of freshman pitcher Abby Mckeown to go increase their lead to nine.
Facing the run-rule in the bottom half of the inning, Wright extended the game another inning after she blasted a pitch that just stayed fair down the left field line for her first home run of the season.
Troy went yard in the seventh inning for a fourth time to extend its lead back out to nine runs to eventually win the game 11-2.
ON DECK
UTA will continue its conference-opening weekend with the second matchup of a three-game series against Troy on Saturday at 1:00 pm at Allan Saxe Field. The Mavs will wrap up their homestand with one final contest against the Trojans on Sunday at 12:00 p.m.
