CONROE, Texas—It was a tough opening day on the diamond for the Crimson Storm softball team as they dropped all three matchups of day one at the Arkansas Tech Classic, falling 7-0 to Texas A&M Kingsville, 12-2 to #1 UT-Tyler, and 8-3 to Texas Woman's.
Game 1
The offense struggled to get things going against Texas A&M Kingsville and that would prove to be the theme of the day. The Storm mustered just three hits against the Javelinas on their way to being shut out in game one.
Kingsville plated four runs in the second frame and that was more than enough distance to secure the win. SNU showed a little fight in the sixth inning, notching a pair of hits and moving their first runner into scoring position, but a lazy popout quickly thwarted that threat.
The runs continued to come on the other side, though, as Kingsville added three more runs to build a commanding 7-0 lead. They would tally 14 hits on the way to those seven runs.
Liana Heshiki, Caitlyn Curlee (Bates), and London Lewis tallied the lone hits for the Crimson Storm.
Game 2
Game two did not get any easier for Southern Nazarene as they found themselves squaring off with the preseason No. 1 team in the country, Texas-Tyler. The Patriots showed why they are so revered, swinging away to a tune of 12 runs on 17 hits.
After leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, UT-Tyler made sure that did not happen again. They erupted for 8 runs, 6 of which came with no outs, to blow the game wide open in the second inning. The Patriots then added three runs in the third and another in the fourth to extend that lead to 12-0.
The Crimson Storm finally got on the board in the fifth inning as an Anna Icenhower groundout brought in SNU's first run. They added one more run on a Caitlyn Curlee (Bates) single to center, but that is all they could muster as the Storm fell 12-2 in five innings.
Game 3
Another difficult matchup and another slow start in game three saw the Crimson Storm fall behind 8-0. They showed some late life to trim that deficit to five runs, but ultimately fell 8-3 in the final game of the day.
Texas Woman's tallied runs in each of the first four innings as they built an early lead. Their three run fourth inning put the Storm in jeopardy of dropping a second straight game in five innings, but SNU showed resilience with a pair of runs in the top half of the fifth to keep the game alive.
SNU notched four consecutive singles to open the fifth and score a pair of runs, but a fly out, a strikeout, and a groundout brought a halt to the Storm's momentum. Two doubles in the seventh by Sydney Sundbye and Natalie Jones allowed the Crimson Storm to put one more run on the board, but the eight run deficit prove to be too much to overcome.
Hannah Sattler came into the game in the fourth inning and pitched a masterful 2.2 innings. She struck out two batters and allowed just 1 hit on her way to keeping Texas Woman's off the scoreboard over the final couple of innings.
Sydney Sundbye, Caitlyn Curlee (Bates), and Natalie Jones each tallied a pair of hits in the game.
The Crimson Storm have one more crack at getting in the win column at the Arkansas Tech Classic tomorrow morning. It is a quick turnaround as SNU faces off with St. Mary's in an early 9:00 a.m. matchup.
