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HOUSTON – In the final game of a three-game series with Incarnate Word on Saturday afternoon at Husky Field, the HBU softball team scored two in the bottom of the seventh but fell by a score of 4-3.
The Huskies (10-17, 2-10 SLC) took advantage of a leadoff walk to
Libby Brown to open the bottom half of the second, moving her up to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Shae Bibby. Two batters later, with two outs,
Kay Schroeder drove a double to deep right field to bring Brown home and give HBU a 1-0 lead.
Incarnate Word (6-28, 2-10 SLC) answered in the top of the third after Kellen Robles was hit by a pitch to start the inning. She advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and then a Marcela Lopez single put runners on first and third. Lopez then stole second to put two in scoring position with one out and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Christy Trevino tied the game at 1-1.
The score remained knotted at 1-1 until the top of the seventh. The Cardinals got a leadoff single from Danielle Ramirez off of Bibby, who came on in the seventh in relief of starter
Stephanie Buenrostro. A sacrifice bunt moved Ramirez up to second with one out. Trevino then reached on an infield single but a fielding error by
Megan Hiers on the throw allowed Ramirez to advance to third. Trevino then stole second and an Alex Alonzo single to right center brought two runs home. Delaney Guzman kept the rally going with a single through the left side followed by a Victoria Bratcher infield single to load the bases. Bailey Thomas then lined a single through the left side to make it 4-1.
Emily Mueller then came on in relief for the Huskies and ended the threat.
Down to their final three outs, the Huskies offense came to life, having totaled just two hits through six innings. Schroeder picked up hit number three with a one-out single up the middle. Two batters later, with two outs,
Heidi Jaquez lined a single to right that was misplayed by the Cardinal right fielder, allowing Schroeder to come all the way around to score and Jaquez to move up to third.
Cecilia Bauer followed with a bloop single to right, scoring Jaquez and putting the tying run on first. The game came to an end on a hard hit grounder to the hole at second by Hiers that second baseman Delaney Guzman made a diving stop on and threw Hiers out at first.
Schroeder was a perfect 3-for-3 on the day, raising her batting average to .268 for the season. The junior had one run scored and one run batted in. Incarnate Word held a 13-5 advantage in the hits column over the Huskies and both teams had two errors.
Buenrostro started in the circle for HBU, throwing six innings of one-run ball. The junior allowed just one earned run on seven hits with one strikeout and no walks. Bibby was tagged with the loss, falling to 2-3 on the season. She gave up three earned runs on six hits in just a third of an inning.
HBU will travel to San Antonio, Texas for a single mid-week matchup against UTSA on Tuesday evening with first pitch slated for 6:00 p.m.
