CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Faced with the daunting task of needing to be almost perfect Saturday, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi softball team came up a bit short, falling 5-0 to Southeastern, La., in the finale of a three-game series at Chapman Field.
The Islanders (19-14 overall, 7-8 Southland Conference) had few answers for the Lady Lions (33-7, 10-2) throughout the series, getting outscored 17-2 and outhit 23-14. But they put forth a worthy effort Saturday, collecting half of those hits and perhaps making SLU a little nervous in the process.
Unfortunately for the Islanders, while they had at least one baserunner in every inning thanks to the seven hits, two walks and an error, they stranded all 10 in suffering their second shutout of the series.
Yet it all could have been very different.
In the bottom of the first inning,
Sydney Hoyt – who got just her third start of the season and was immediately inserted into the leadoff spot – doubled off SLU ace Cera Blanchard. Two outs later,
Kimane Rogron singled up the middle on an 0-2 pitch, and
Paolina Baez walked after a 10-pitch battle to load the bases.
That brought
Sidney Campion to the plate, who tripled in the Game 1 shutout loss that Blanchard started and won. But this time, on a 3-2 count, Campion fouled a pitch off the netting in front of the visiting dugout. The home plate umpire, however, ruled that Campion had stepped out of the batter's box when she made contact, resulting in a strike and the third out.
It was the first time the Islanders had the bases loaded during the series, and it would be the last. Moreover, although the Islanders would get seven more baserunners on the next six innings, they would only get one more runner to third the rest of the game.
The Islanders were on the wrong end of another call in the top of the fourth inning.
With one run already in to boost the lead to 2-0, SLU got a single up the middle with a runner at second. Campion came up firing and threw a strike to catcher
Precious Aholelei, who applied the tag for the apparent third out. However, Aholelei was ruled to have been in the baseline, negating the tag, allowing the run to score and continuing the inning.
The Lady Lions added two more in the fifth to make it 5-0 and extend the frustrating weekend for TAMU-CC ace
Primrose Aholelei.
Aholelei allowed just one unearned run Saturday on six hits and no walks while throwing a tidy 85 pitches in her 41st career complete game. But it was the second consecutive game she got zero runs of support, thanks mainly to Blanchard tossing a combined 10 innings of shutout ball.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Aholelei – the nation's third-leading strikeout artist – had to wait until the final batter she faced to get her first strikeout. It was the fewest number of strikeouts she's ever had in a complete game, surpassing the three she had against Nicholls on April 1 of last year. It also matched the fewest number of strikeouts she's had in a start of any length. She had just one against UIW on March 15 of this year, but she pitched just 3.1 innings in that game.
Nevertheless, Aholelei kept an amazing streak intact. The senior from Hawaii has had at least one strikeout in every game she's pitched for the Islanders. She's made 55 appearances as an Islander, and she has at least one strikeout in every one of them.
Monee Montilla went 2-for-4 with a single and double for TAMU-CC, becoming the only Islander to have multiple hits in any of the three games. In addition to Hoyt and Rogron,
Rhea-Ann Avalos, Mimi Thronton and
Isabella Hune also had hits.
TAMUCC (19-14, 7-8 SLC)
Friday, April 5 – vs. Southeastern, La., L (3-0)
Friday, April 5 – vs. Southeastern, La., L (9-2)
Saturday, April 6 – vs. Southeastern, La., L (5-0)
On Deck: The Islanders will play Lamar in a three-game conference series on Friday-Saturday, April 12-13 in Beaumont, Texas. There will be a doubleheader on April 12 beginning at 3 p.m., then a single game Saturday beginning at noon.
Home again: The Islanders will return home on Friday, April 26 to begin a three-game conference series with defending SLC champion McNeese. The teams will play a doubleheader beginning at noon on Friday, April 26, then play a single game beginning at noon on Saturday, April 27.
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Islanders Softball) and follow the program on Twitter (
@IslandersSball) and Instagram (
islanderssball).
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