MARSHALL, Texas – After starting their season with a victory at home on Monday night, the East Texas Baptist University softball team will remain at Taylor Field for two series this week. They will host both the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Pacific University on Thursday and Saturday respectively.
Monday night saw the Tigers defeat Centenary College, 4-1, in their home opener.
Sabrina Salts,
Daniella Solis, and
Mikaela Tellez would each have two hits in the game while
MacKenzie Anderson picked up a clutch two-run home run that put ETBU ahead.
Beatriz Lara picked up 12 strikeouts while allowing a run on two hits in seven innings to earn her first win in her first ever collegiate start.
This weekend will see ETBU host UMHB in a non-conference series. ETBU competed against the Crusaders four times last season taking two-of-three in the final regular season series. Then, ETBU won an elimination game,7-0, against UMHB in the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament. This will be the first game UMHB has played this season. Last season, Hannah Wolfe led UMHB with a .376 batting average while collecting 38 hits. Kasi Cummings posted a .331 batting average and was fourth on UMHB with 41 hits while twin sister Kourtney Cummings posted 24 RBI on 35 hits. In the circle, CeCe Darilek posted a 2.56 ERA with a 5-4 record including three complete games and 27 strikeouts.
ETBU will then host Pacific University for the first time in two years on Saturday. ETBU swept the Boxers by scores of 11-1 (5 innings) and 11-8 in the doubleheader in February 2017. PU enters the contest fresh off two shutout wins against Oregon Tech University. Nicole Martinez leads the team with a .667 batting average while Kiana Kushiyama bats .600 with three hits on the season. Kate Macaitis-Smith has driven in four RBI on two hits. Both pitchers of Morgan Masters (7.0 innings pitched, six hits, two walks, and one strikeout) and Tiare Guerrero (5.0 IP, five hits) pitched shutout ball for the Boxers in their opening games.
ETBU's Thursday doubleheader with UMHB will start at 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM while Saturday against PU will be at 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM.
