MARSHALL, TX (03.22.19) - The UT Dallas softball team returned to American Southwest Conference play Friday afternoon and suffered a pair of losses at No. 6-ranked East Texas Baptist to open a three-game weekend series with the Tigers.
The Comets (11-12, 7-9 ASC) battled with ETBU to a 5-2 loss in the series opener before falling 9-1 to the Tigers in six innings in the second game of the day. With the win, ETBU improved to 22-1 overall and 13-0 in ASC play. The two teams will wrap up the three-game set at 1 p.m.
GAME 1 - ETBU 5, UTD 2
UT Dallas collected eight hits off of one of the top pitchers in the conference but could not push the runs across the plate in a 5-2 loss to the No. 6-ranked team in the country.
The host Tigers opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the 2nd and added another in the 4th and two in the 5th to go up 5-0 before UTD could get its offense going off of ETBU starter Beatriz Lara, who enter the contest with an ASC-best 0.88 earned run average.
With one out in the top of the 6th,
Amber Williams belted her team-leading seventh home run for the Comets' first run of the inning.
Ravin Wilson followed up with an infield single and later came home on an
Nicole Peters single up the middle. UTD picked up four hits off of Lara in the inning, but left two runners on base after a hard-liner by
Elizabeth Brann to end the frame.
Emily Schroeder was the lone Comet with a multi-hit performance, going 2-for-3 while Williams finished 1-for-4.
GAME 2 - ETBU 9, UTD 1 (6 inn.)
The Comets managed just three hits in the second game of the day as host ETBU plated four runs in the bottom of the 6th to wrap up a run-rule victory to close the twin bill.
Already down 4-0 in the 4th, the Comets got on the scoreboard when
Hope Griffith led off UTD's half of the frame with a double to centerfield and then scored on a Wilson single. However, the Tigers got the run back in the bottom of the frame and added four runs on four hits and a game-ending UTD error, that plated the final two runs of the contest.
Griffith, Wilson and Schroeder each finished the game 1-for-2.