ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington softball team (11-13) won the pivotal game three of its conference-opening series against Troy (15-6) on Sunday by the final score of 7-3 at Allan Saxe Field.
For the second-consecutive day,
KJ Murphy led the Mavs to victory with another home run in as many games. The senior finished the contest going 2-3 with a double, the aforementioned long ball, a walk, four runs batted in and one run scored.
Murphy's classmate
Reagan Wright did her fair share of punishing the Trojan pitching staff too as the captain finished with three hits, an RBI and two runs scored.
JoJo Valencia recorded the win for the Mavs, but UTA's pitching staff was headed by freshman
Kenedy Hines as she got the start in the circle and pitched three scoreless innings before giving up two runs to the Trojans in the fourth.
Sophomore pitcher
Allie Gardiner came into the game in the sixth and after she gave up a two-out single, she retired the next four batters in a row to get the save and seal the win for UTA.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
After UTA was held to one hit through the first three innings, the Mavs recorded eight hits in the next three frames combined to finish the game with a total of nine base-knocks.
The Mavs reached base a total of 16 times after recording the nine hits, a hit-by-pitch and seven free-passes. After going down swinging just four times on the day, it's the eighth time this season UTA has finished with more walks in a game than strikeouts.
UTA was led by its upperclassmen today as three of them attained a multi-hit effort on the day. It's the fourth time this season the Mavs have had three or more players record multiple hits in the same game – the most came in a loss against UTSA when four Mavs registered a multi-hit performance.
Reagan Wright not only finished 3-4 at the plate, but she swiped two bases in the game to move herself back into sole possession of the team-lead in stolen bases with nine on the season. She hasn't been thrown out trying to attempt to steal a base yet this season.
UTA reached base to lead off an inning in five out of the six frames the team came up to bat on Sunday.
Senior shortstop
Whitney Walton went 2-4 with two runs scored on the day and now sits tied with
Kimber Cortemelia for the team-lead in runs (14) to go along with a team-best of 22 hits on the season.
Murphy recorded the only two extra-base hits in the game for UTA and the four runs she batted in mark the fifth time this season a Mav has recorded four or more RBI in a game.
Gardiner (3-0) recorded a strike out and gave up just one hit through her two innings pitched and now has two saves on the season.
Kenedy Hines started the game for UTA and gave up four hits after pitching four innings of two-run softball. Of the seven hits UTA's pitching staff gave up against Troy, only one of them went for extra-bases. That marks the second game in a row the Mavs have allowed only one multiple-base hit.
Brittany Wyllie recorded an RBI after she worked a walk with the bases loaded. She and right fielder
Amber Langston were the only other two Mavs to reach base more than once after she finished the game with a single and the aforementioned base-on-balls. Langston worked two free-passes in the contest.
THEY SAID IT – HEAD COACH PEEJAY BRUN
"They did a great job of bringing the energy today. We stuck to the game plan. Everything we talked about before the game, they did a great job of executing."
"I told the pitching staff that if I have to use four pitchers, I'll use four. I was going to do whatever I had to do to win the game and the staff bought into it. I think they're starting to understand that we're going to do whatever we have to do to try and get us a win."
THE RUNDOWN
Kenedy Hines retired the side in order to open the game and didn't allow a single hit through the first three frames. On the back of some great defensive plays by the Mavs – including a nice catch and throw by
Reagan Hukill to catch the runner trying to tag up from first to second in the third inning – Hines was able to keep Troy at bay heading into the fourth.
The Mavs themselves reached base once every inning through the first three frames, but after recording only one hit in that time span, the Mavs were never able to get anything significant going to begin the game.
Hines came back out to the circle in the fourth and after she recorded the first out on a fly ball to center field, the Spring, Texas, product gave up four-straight hits to Troy, the last two of which allowed the Trojans to push a run across each time to take a 2-0 lead.
Now trailing by two runs in the bottom half of the frame,
Madison Miller got the inning started by taking one for the team with a hit-by-pitch.
Reagan Wright promptly followed with a single up the middle to put runners on first and third with Murphy coming to the dish.
After Wright stole second, Murphy blasted a pitch out into left-center for her second home run in as many days to put the Mavs in front for the first time all game at 3-2.
Coach Brun went to her bullpen and inserted
JoJo Valencia into the circle to begin the top of the fifth inning. After a fielding error on a single into left field allowed the batter to reach second base, Troy took advantage of the blunder with a two-out single to plate another Trojan run and tie up the game at 3-3.
The Mavs came storming back out in the bottom half with three more UTA runs. After Walton led off the inning with a single, Wright pushed the first run of the inning across with a single to left.
The very next at-bat, Murphy worked the count to full before she went the opposite way for a two-out double to drive in Wright for UTA's second run of the frame.
After two-consecutive UTA walks loaded the bases, the senior Wyllie stepped to the dish and worked the third free-pass of the inning to increase the Mavs' lead to three runs.
Now leading 6-3, Coach Brun went back into her bullpen and handed the ball off to the sophomore Gardiner. She promptly got the first two Trojan batters out before she gave up a two-out single, but she extinguished any hope of a Troy rally by striking out the next batter for the final out of the sixth inning.
Still up three runs heading into the bottom half of the inning, the Mavs added on an assurance run just for good measure. Walton led off the frame with an infield single before making her way to third off a wild pitch and a Hukill sacrifice groundout. With two outs and her not wanting to get stranded on third base, Walton took off for home when she saw the ball pop out of the catcher's mit. The senior captain went on to score UTA's seventh and final run of the game after she slid in with a head-first dive at home plate, just beating out the lunging catcher trying to apply the tag.
Gardiner came back out to the circle for the seventh inning and secured UTA's 7-3 victory by retiring the side in order with the help of a stellar play from Wyllie out in left field.
ON DECK
UTA has a quick turnaround as it will play host to Western Kentucky (20-4) at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday night at Allan Saxe Field. WKU will head to Arlington winners of their last 10 games in a row. The contest will mark the first time Assistant Coach Miranda Kramer will face her alma mater as the former Hilltopper spent her last collegiate season leading WKU to a Conference-USA championship in 2015 before becoming the program's first-ever NFCA First-Team All-American honoree.
