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Box Score 2 RICHARDSON, TX (04.14.13) - The UT Dallas softball team secured its second straight 20-win season Sunday afternoon as the Comets completed a four-game weekend home sweep of Mississippi College with a pair of two-run victories. UTD opened the day with a 6-4 win over the Choctaws and closed out the weekend with an 8-6 win.
The Comets (now 20-13-1 overall, 11-9 ASC East) belted out 12 hits in each game as the offense finished the four games with Mississippi College hitting .477 (52-of-109) as a team. UTD takes over third place in the American Southwest Conference East Division with the wins with the final weekend of the regular season coming up. The Comets take a break from conference play Wednesday with a 4 p.m. doubleheader at Austin College before a four-game series at Louisiana College over the weekend.
GAME 1 - UTD 6, MC 4
The Comets had to come from behind twice, but completed the win with a four-run 5th inning en route to a 6-4 victory to open Sunday's doubleheader with Mississippi College.
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the 3nd, UTD got on the board with a two-run home run by
Jonelle Feikis, her fourth of the season, to lift the Comets to a 2-1 advantage. However, the Choctaws answered with a three-run blast by Kimmie Conley in the top of the 5th to regain a 4-2 lead.
In the bottom of the 5th, the Comets responded with four runs on five hits and a walk.
Robin Thomas opened the frame with a double to left center and then came home on a single by Feikis to draw within a run. After a walk drawn by
Jordan Bratcher,
Stephanie Harris knotted the game with a double to left, plating pinch-runner
Chelsea Sartor. After a pitching change,
Brittanie Knowles completed the scoring with a two-run go-ahead single up the middle, scoring Bratcher and Harris.
Jeni Olbeter (11-7) picked up her second win of the weekend as she scattered seven hits and gave up four runs in 7.0 innings of work. Olbeter struck out two and walked one Choctaw batter. Bratcher was 2-for-2 while Harris, Thomas and Feikis each went 2-for-3.
GAME 2 - UTD 8, MC 6
In the series finale, the Comets jumped out early with four runs in the 1st and never trailed as UTD earned a hard-fought 8-6 win over Mississippi College.
Avery McHugh kicked off the scoring with a one-out three-run home run to right, her team-leading sixth of the season, scoring Harris and Knowles, to give UTD an early 3-0 lead. Two batters later,
Hannah Creech singled to left, stole second and came home on a Feikis double to center.
Mississippi College scored a run in the top of the 2nd to cut the Comet lead to 4-1, but UTD answered with a run in the bottom of the 3rd on a Creech inside-the-park home run that scooted past MC leftfielder Ashley Greenway and rolled to the fence.
The visiting Choctaws (7-30, 5-17 ASC East) threatened to take the lead in the fifth, scoring two runs on a Conley single and had the tying run at the plate but
Megan Aragones forced MC clean-up hitter to ground out to second base to end the threat.
In the bottom of the 5th, the Comets got both runs back and regained a four-run lead, 7-3. Knowles opened the inning with a double to left center and then scored on an RBI single up the middle by McHugh. Two batters later, Creech brought home McHugh with a single through the left side of the Choctaw infield. But again, the Choctaws rallied with three runs on four hits and a hit batter in top of the 6th to draw within a run, 7-6, but left the tying run at third base. UTD added an insurance run in the bottom of the frame on a RBI bunt single, scoring Sartor.
Aragones (5-5) also collected her second win of the weekend, giving up three earned runs on eight hits in 6.0 innings in the circle. She struck out two and walked two. Olbeter picked up her first save of the season with a scoreless 7th, giving up one hit. McHugh was a triple away from the cycle for the second time over the weekend, going 3-for-4 with four RBI and two runs scored. Creech was 3-for-3 while Knowles was 2-for-4.
