WICHITA FALLS, Texas – The West Texas A&M softball team powered its way to victory over the Midwestern State Mustangs on Tuesday night. The Lady Buffs defeated the Mustangs 20-1 in five innings to open the Lone Star Conference series, improving their record to 15-1 overall and 7-0 in league play.
In the opening frame,
Lauren Granger poked a single into right field to give WT's its first base runner. After a diving catch from the Midwestern State defense,
Emilee Boyer drew a walk to move Granger up a base. The pair moved up once again after a wild pitch from the Mustangs' starting pitcher, Addison Lindemann. With one out,
Diana Murtha drove a double into the right-center gap to score Granger and Boyer. After the double,
Madison Johnson joined Murtha on the bases after being hit by a pitch. The Lady Buffs extended their lead on the next batter as
Heaven Moreno drove a home run over the center field fence, pushing the lead to 5-0.
The bottom of the half of the first saw Boyer record a first-pitch groundout, but three-straight hits from Midwestern State loaded the bases with one out. The Mustangs plated their first run of the game when Megan Ayala lifted a sacrifice fly to center. Despite the run coming across, Boyer limited the scoring by forcing another flyout to Rufus to end the inning.
An inning later, Granger started the inning with a double off the wall in right before Lindemann retired the next two hitters. On the first pitch of her at bat, Murtha also doubled off the wall to bring Granger around to score. With two outs, Johnson lifted an absolute no-doubter to left field and push the lead to seven runs. WT didn't stop there as Moreno's walk came around to score on
Braeland Booth's blast to left-center field.
The offensive outburst continued in the third inning as Granger powered a leadoff home run to center field, putting the sophomore a triple away from the cycle. Following the home run,
Brittni Rufus lined a single up the middle before advancing to third on Boyer's double to the gap. A Murtha walk loaded the bases with no outs for Johnson where the senior lifted a sacrifice fly to center. WT continued its third-inning scoring as Booth reached on a throwing error, scoring pinch-runner
Kiley Avery. A batter later,
Megan Guericke lined a single past the pitcher to score another run. Although the Lady Buffs would load the bases once again, Midwestern State escaped the inning on a strikeout.
In the fourth inning, two walks and a single loaded the bases for Moreno with one out. The sophomore infielder brought home another run as she lined a single into right field. After entering the game as a defensive substitute,
Trinity Kuntz delivered a two-RBI double into the gap.
The Lady Buffs finished off their scoring in the fifth inning as
Tatem Pendergraft and
Kiley Avery started the inning with back-to-back hits.
Justine Navarra brought home Pendergraft as the senior recorded a RBI groundout to first. Moreno recorded her fifth RBI of the game as the Amarillo, Texas native lifted a sacrifice fly to right field. With two outs, Kuntz doubled once again to drive in a run and cap the WT scoring at 20 runs.
WT and Midwestern State finish the LSC series tomorrow with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. at Mustangs Park.
