Rambelle Softball Drops Opening LSC Series to Lady Buffs

The Angelo State University Rambelle softball team dropped its opening series against the West Texas A&M University Lady Buffs at Mayer Field on Friday, Feb. 17, and Saturday, Feb. 18. 

ASU 3-7 WTAMU (Game 1) 

On Friday, Feb 17, the Rambelles would come up short against the Lady Buffs, dropping game one of the three-game series, 7-3. 

Ashlyn Lerma scored in the first inning for the Rambelles, drawing a walk before advancing to second with the stolen base. A sacrifice bunt would advance Lerma to third, where she would be brought home by a sacrifice fly from Paxton Scheurer to give the Rambelles the early 1-0 lead. 

WTAMU tied the score in the top of the third inning and went on to take the lead in the top of the fourth by pushing 4 runs across the plate. The Lady Buffs would extend their lead in the top of the seventh due to a two-run home run to make the score 7-1 in favor of WTAMU. 

ASU would be quick to respond in the bottom of the seventh inning. Maleya Burns advanced to first base on a walk to set up catcher Kelilei Garcia’s fifth home run of the season, bringing the final score to 7-3. 

Genesis Armendariz, the starting pitcher in the circle for the Rambelles, would pick up her first loss of the season. She pitched a complete seven innings of work, allowing eight hits and 4 runs. 

ASU 1-5 WTAMU (Game 2) ; ASU 5-11 WTAMU (Game 3)

Game two of the series against the Lady Buffs would prove to be a long contest that lasted the entirety of 12 innings. 

Both ASU and WTAMU would be held scoreless through the first and second innings, and the Lady Buffs would be the first on the board in the top of the third inning. The game would remain quiet as both teams would be held scoreless throughout the top of the sixth inning. 

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Scheurer would find her way on base with a lead-off single as pinch runner Tatiana Trotter would enter the contest to run the base path. Trotter would score on a Garcia single to tie the game and push the game into extra innings. 

Both teams would battle through all 12 innings, and the Lady Buffs would end the contest on top after pushing across 4 runs in the top half of the final frame. 

Despite the loss for the Rambelles, starting pitcher Torrey Hogan turned in an exceptional performance in the circle as she tossed a total of 163 pitches in her 11 ⅓ innings of work. Hogan allowed seven hits and 4 runs while striking out 12 through the 45 Lady Buff batters she faced. 

In the final game of the series against the Lady Buffs, the Rambelles would jump to a quick lead in the bottom of the first for the early 4-0 lead. 

Lerma would find her way on base first with a lead-off double. Scheurer would draw the walk in her first at-bat of the day and advance to first. Both runners would be brought home by RBI singles from Garcia and Lindsey Evans. Burns would deliver an RBI double for ASU to end the scoring offense for the half-inning. 

WTAMU would battle in the contest against the Rambelles as they added runs in the top of the second and two in the top of the fourth to diminish the ASU lead. Ashton McMillan would contribute an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to put the Rambelles back on top 5-3.

The lead for ASU would be short-lived as WTAMU scored 4 runs in the top half of the sixth and seventh innings to take the lead and make the final score 11-5. 

With the loss, the Rambelles move to 8-6 on the season and 0-3 to start their LSC campaign. They travel to Odessa, Texas, to take on the University of Texas-Permian Basin Falcons and before returning home to Mayer Field to take on the University of Texas-Tyler Patriots in more conference play.