LUBBOCK – UTEP softball (5-11, 0-0 C-USA) snapped its four-game skid with head coach T.J. Hubbard’s biggest win of his UTEP stint to date in a 9-8 victory over Texas Tech (14-9, 0-0 Big XII) Saturday afternoon on day two of the Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic.
It was the Miners’ first win over a Power-5 and Big XII foe since 2015 and first-ever win in Lubbock.
UTEP lost to Tarleton State (10-15, 0-0 WAC), 6-4, earlier in the day.
GAME TWO: UTEP 9, TTU 8
The Miners surpassed their hit total in their two combined mercy-rule losses yesterday in just the first inning in game two versus the Red Raiders with three singles. And after being blanked by Texas Tech in those two games, UTEP jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first inning.
UTEP’s first three batters – sophomore utility Zaylie Calderon, junior infielder Pate Cathey and redshirt sophomore Idalis Mendez – loaded the bases.
Junior infielder Kasey Flores forced a walk to bring home her first RBI and the Miners’ first run of the day, 1-0. Freshman Anna Sample – who was 3-for-13 coming into the game – singled up the middle for the first RBI of her career, 2-0.
Freshman utility Ashlynn Allen hit a sacrifice fly for another Miner run, and senior Ariana Valles walked the next at-bat to load the bases once more in the inning.
Sophomore catcher Isabella Hanson hit UTEP’s second RBI single to centerfield – her first RBI of the season. Freshman infielder Lexi Morales knocked in the fifth run of the inning with another sacrifice fly.
Sophomore pitcher Isabella Kelly allowed two runs – one earned – through the first three innings.
Flores provided an insurance run with a double down the leftfield line in the fourth inning. In the next at-bat, Sample recorded her second RBI single of the game, 7-2. The Red Raiders came firing back in the bottom half with a leadoff homer and a bases-clearing, 3-RBI double, 7-5.
Calderon extended the lead once more, 8-5, with UTEP’s fourth RBI single. Texas Tech evened the score, 8-8, with a three-run homerun in the bottom half of the fifth.
In the top of the sixth inning, Flores gave UTEP its second lead of the contest with a solo homerun – her first longball since the second game of the year versus Abilene Christian on Feb. 11. Flores finished the game with three RBIs.
Freshman pitcher Mackenzee Collins tossed a shutdown frame in the sixth and sent down the first two Red Raiders she faced in the seventh before Hubbard brought Kelly back in the game to record the final out.
Kelly induced a groundball out to Cathey to seal the win.
GAME ONE: TARLETON STATE 6, UTEP 4
UTEP garnered a quick lead in its first game of the day against Tarleton State as well; Mendez’s solo homer in the first inning and a 3-RBI double in the second put the Miners up 4-0.
UTEP held its lead until the top of the fifth inning when the Texans bit the Miners for a three-run homerun for the first of such blasts they allowed that day. Tarleton State acquired two insurance runs the next two innings, 6-4.
Next up for the Miners, Conference USA play April 2 and 3 versus Southern Miss (18-9, 0-0 C-USA) for its first games back at Helen of Troy Field since March 6.
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