JACKSON, Miss. – Starting off the 2022 season with a NFCA NCAA Division III Top 25 series, #4 East Texas Baptist University split the double header with #18 Belhaven. BU won game one, 7-6, while ETBU took game two, 8-0, to move to 1-1 on the year and in the American Southwest Conference.
Tristen Maddox led ETBU with four hits, five runs scored, five RBI, and 11 total bases on the day. She posted two home runs and a double.
Marin Musicant added three hits and two RBI with one home run.
Ashley Croft took the loss in game one with four strikeouts and
Kathryn Reed won game two in a shutout with seven strikeouts.
Game 1
BU 7, ETBU 6
Belhaven scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning after ETBU tied it at six in the top of the inning. Croft went all seven innings walking one batter with four strikeouts and six earned runs. Maddox,
Courtney White, and Musicant all had two hits and one RBI.
Delanie Loya and
Corley Carpenter also had one RBI.
ETBU scored first in the top of the first inning on a White single that scored Maddox. BU answered with a home run for the 3-1 lead in the bottom of the inning. In the third, Maddox homered to cut the lead to one, 3-2, and then ETBU tied the game in the fourth on an error as
Tauryn Cummings scored. Belhaven added two more runs with one in the fourth and fifth inning to move ahead, 5-3.
In the sixth inning, Musicant homered to pull within one run, 5-4, but Belhaven answered in the bottom of the inning for a two-run advantage, 6-4. Once again, ETBU came back in the seventh to tie the game at six. Loya flew out for a sacrifice fly as Maddox scored and then Carpenter doubled in White to tie the game. Belhaven then won the game in the bottom of the inning with a walk-off single to center field.
Game 2
ETBU 8, BU 0
It was all ETBU in game two with eight runs scored and a three-hit shutout for Reed. Maddox went 2-of-4 with four RBI recording a double and a home run. White and
Alison Carrion both had two hits. Carpenter, Musicant, and
Marisela Gil all recorded one RBI. Reed went the distance in a run-ruled six inning game with seven strikeouts, three hits, one walk, and no runs scored.
In the first inning, Carpenter grounded out for a RBI as Maddox scored. Three runs were scored in the second as Cummings scored on an error. Maddox followed with a two RBI double making it 4-0. She then hit another home run in the series for two more RBI and a 6-0 lead in the fourth inning. The fifth inning brought a run in from Gil as she scored
Leah Akridge on a single to left field. Musicant finished out the scoring in the sixth with a single as
Amber Thibodeaux scored.
ETBU will finish the series with Belhaven at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning in Jackson, Miss.
