CANYON, Texas – The #22 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M were one strike away from their first loss of the season on multiple occasions in the seventh inning of the nightcap on Saturday but WT fought back as freshman
Shayne Starkey's two run single with the bases loaded capped off a 7-6 comeback as the Lady Buffs completed the Saturday sweep of Western Oregon in front of over 500 people at Schaeffer Park. The wins lift the Lady Buffs to 14-0 while the Wolves fall to 5-7 on the season.
GAME #1The Lady Buffs capitalized on two Western Oregon errors in the first two runs of the contest as
Brittany Gehle drove home
Stacey Ramirez followed by a
Shea Ibrahim sac fly to left to give WT the early 2-0 lead. The Wolves cut into the lead in the top of the second inning as Ryanne Huffaman singled to left center to drive in Tess Kuehl with one out before
Brittany Cruz ended the inning herself with a catch in right field and a frozen rope to third base as the WOU runner tried to advance to end the frame with WT leading 2-1.
Cruz led off the home half of the frame with a double down the left field line followed by a Ramirez infield single to put runners on the corners with no outs, Gehle flew out to right field to score Cruz with the sac fly followed by an Ibrahim RBI single to right field and another Western Oregon error as the junior advanced to third with one out before
Lacey Taylor added to the WT lead with a double to left field to run the lead to 5-1.
The teams traded zeros before WT came to bat in the home half of the sixth as
Ashley Hardin and
Allie Smith led off the frame with singles followed by a Hardin steal to put runners on the corners with no outs.
Shayne Starkey flew out to left field to score Hardin followed by a
Kourtney Coveney RBI single to center before Cruz ended the game with a two-run bomb to straightaway center field for the 9-1 win.
Kilee Halbert picked up the win (6-0) for the Lady Buffs, giving up one run on no walks and three strikeouts in the complete game win.
GAME #2The Wolves took the early lead in the top of the first inning as it looked that the Lady Buffs got out of the inning three-up and three-down but a pulled-off-the-bag call at first base on the third out extended the WOU inning and they capitalized with a walk and single before a Ashlee Lynch three run homerun on top of the batting cages in left field to give the Wolves the 3-0 lead.
WOU added to their lead in the top of the second inning as Kuehl and Kelsie Gardner registered back-to-back doubles to run the Wolves lead to 4-0 and chase
Alexis Alfonso from the game, The Lady Buffs struggled at the plate as they went without a hit until the fifth as they took advantage of a Wolves error as Starkey raced around to score from first base followed by a Ramirez RBI single thru the left side to cut the WOU lead to 4-2 after five innings of play.
Western Oregon responded in the top of the sixth inning as a runner reached via a hit-by-pitch with one out before a two run homerun to center field Lizzet Dominguez to stretch the WOU lead to 6-2. The Lady Buffs wouldn't go down without a fight as Taylor laced a frozen rope single off of the center field wall to leadoff the sixth followed by a Hardin two-run blast the opposite way to right center to cut the lead to 6-4, Starkey doubled off of the left field wall to knock WOU starter Alyson Boytz from the game before a WT strikeout for the second out and a groundout to third to end the frame at 6-4.
The Lady Buffs showed their heart once again in the bottom of the seventh inning as Ibrahim and Taylor drew back-to-back two out walks on a full count followed by a wild pitch to move the runners up 60 feet, Hardin was intentionally walked to load the bases followed by a
Kylee Moore RBI walk on a full count to cut the lead to 6-5. WT ended the game in style as Starkey singled up the middle to score Hardin and pinch runner
Alyssa Montoya to end the game, 7-6 as the Schaeffer Park crowd erupted in Sweet Caroline.
Bayer registered another strong relief outing as the senior picked up the win (4-0), giving up two runs on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts in her 5.1 innings of work.
NEXT UPWT will conclude the 2016 Lady Buff Invite tomorrow afternoon as they take on the Newman Jets with a doubleheader set for 1 p.m. at Schaeffer Park in Canyon. The Jets fell to Western Oregon twice on Friday before topping Lincoln (6-0, 12-1) on Saturday at Schaeffer Park.
