Islanders Bounce Back to Beat UTA after Falling to UNT

ARLINGTON, Texas – After dropping the first game to North Texas 5-0 on Thursday, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi softball program responded by defeating the tournament host UT Arlington in a 5-4 nail-biter at Allan Saxe Field.
 
In game two, A&M-Corpus Christi (7-5) jumped out to a 5-0 lead over UTA (1-8) when the Mavs rallied with four runs in the sixth inning, which ended with a runner stranded on third. In the bottom of the seventh, UTA threatened again with runners on first and second, but sophomore Jenika Lombrana forced a flyout to left field that was caught by freshman Alexandria Torres to end the game.
 
Sophomore Beatriz Lara earned the win and improved to 4-1 on the year. She last 5.0 innings, and Lombrana came in to finish off the final 2.0 frames to tally the save.
 
With a hit in each game, sophomore Pal Egan has reached base safely in all 12 games this season.
 
In game two, Egan went 2-for-2 with a walk, two RBIs and a run scored. Torres also tallied a multi-hit game, while senior Skyle Koehl and sophomore Sammi Thomas each had one.
 
The Islanders got off to a strong start against the Mavs. They garnered an RBI single by Egan and took advantage of two fielding errors to build a 3-0 lead.
 
A&M-Corpus Christi extended it to 5-0 in the second. After Torres led off with a single, Thomas and Egan followed with doubles to plate runs.
 
Lara was on cruise control through five innings, but trouble started brewing in the sixth. The Mavs scored one and threatened further damage with the bases loaded and no outs. The Islanders exchanged runs for outs and escaped the inning with a 5-4 lead after stranding the tying run on third base.
 
In the seventh, UTA didn't go down easily, but A&M-Corpus Christi again avoided the tying run from coming home and stranded two runners in the win.
 
In the first game of the day, the Islanders mustered three hits from Egan, junior Tiler Noyola and sophomore Alyssa Escamilla.
 
The best scoring chance for A&M-Corpus Christi came in the sixth inning. After back-to-back singles by Noyola and Escamilla started it off, the runners advanced to second and third on a sacrifice bunt. Though, UNT (9-4) was able to get out of it on a pop up and strikeout.
 
Gigi Wall threw a complete-game shutout for the Mean Green.
 
Lombrana got the start, but the game was highlighted by 5.2 innings of relief from freshman Audrey McNeill. She struck out a pair and did not allow an earned run.
 
A&M-Corpus Christi will continue the UTA Invitational with two more games Saturday. It begins with an 11:30 a.m. contest against Wichita State and will be followed by a 2 p.m. game versus Missouri State.
 
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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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