CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Improving to 4-2 on the season, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi softball program won a pair of games 5-3 and 7-1 in their home openers Wednesday over Texas Southern at Chapman Field.
Sophomore starting pitchers
Jenika Lombrana and sophomore
Beatriz Lara both pitched 6.0 innings and picked up wins. At the plate, the Islanders outhit the Tigers 16-5 over the two games.
Sophomore
Pal Egan reached base safely in both games and has now started the season on a six-game reached base streak. She went 2-for-3 with a walk, RBI and run scored in game one, and walked twice in game two
In the first game of the day, the Islanders got on the board in the second inning on an RBI single to center field by freshman
Gabriella Torres. It plated sophomore
MacKenzie Purcell, who led the inning off with a triple to center field.
After the Tigers tied it with a run in the top of the third, the Islanders took tallied three runs in the bottom half to go up 4-1. It included a couple of walks with the bases loaded by junior
Tiare Lee and junior
Tiler Noyola, and an RBI single by
Kennedy Jimenez.
Egan submitted an insurance run in the sixth inning on a double to center. It scored sophomore
Alyssa Escamilla who walked and stole second.
The Tigers threatened in their final plate appearance in the seventh inning. After scoring a run to make it a 5-3 game, they had runners on second and third with two outs. Freshman
Audrey McNeill forced a groundout to short to end the game.
Lombrana earned the win after allowing just one earned run on two hits in 6.0 innings. She stuck out nine McNeill threw the final frame and recorded her first save of the year.
In game two, the Islanders pounced on TSU early with four runs in the first inning. It came on RBIs by Purcell, senior Skyle Koehl and sophomore
Quinn De Avila.
A&M-Corpus Christi's lead was never in danger the rest of the way. Lara cruised through 6.0 innings and did not allow an earned run. She surrendered just two hits and struck out four.
Sydney Hoyt threw a perfect seventh inning in her first appearance of the year.
De Avila, sophomore
Sammi Thomas and sophomore
Ashleigh Sgambelluri all notched multi-hit games. It was the third multi-hit game of the year for Sgambelluri and second for Thomas.
A&M-Corpus Christi improved to 20-6 all-time against Texas Southern and 12-4 at home.
Up next, the Islanders will compete in the UTSA Tournament on Friday-Sunday. They'll start it off with a 1 p.m. Friday contest against UT Arlington.
Stay Social
For more information on Islanders Softball, keep up with the team via their Facebook page (
Islanders Softball) and follow the program on Twitter (
@IslandersSball) and Instagram (
islanderssball).
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