ABILENE, TEXAS – Senior pitcher
Jenna Lewis kept her unblemished pitching record intact, and freshman
Miranda Soileau continued to impact McMurry University's offense Friday, Feb. 17.
In a pair of narrow-margined finals against Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference foe Schreiner University, head coach
David McNally's War Hawks found the needed equation for victory at Edwards Field.
In the opener, Lewis' 10-strikeout complete-game win was supported by a pair of RBI from senior outfielder
Brianna Martinez (Yucaipa, Calif.). The Hearne, Texas native enthusiastically accepted her offense's five-hit, five-run outburst, allowing the Mountaineers only four hits and one earned run over seven innings.
The nightcap appeared headed for another bookended pitching gem from lefty starter
Kinleigh Stotts. The Covington, Texas, native blanked Schreiner on three hits over the first three frames, but the visitors battled back from an early 3-0 deficit with a four-run fourth to take a 4-3 lead after three and a half. McNally's offense went to work to answer that rally in their half of the fourth. An error and fielder's choice put the lead scores on, and Soileau, hailing from Houston, ripped a liner into the gap in left-center that allowed the eventual winning tallies to score. Sophomore
Baylee Fulps (San Angelo, Texas) came out of the bullpen and extinguished any further Mountaineer offensive uprisings, holding SU to just two hits over the final three innings.
McMurry's 5-2, 5-4 sweep moved them to 6-0, wrapping an unbeaten season-opening homestand. That record marks the best start of any campaign in program history. The Maroon, Black, and White hit the road for the first time in 2023 Friday, Feb. 24, for a doubleheader at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. The start time at the West University Softball Association is 2 p.m.
NOTES: Soileau's bat has been nearly unstoppable. She's hitting a stratospheric .533 clip with an astounding 1.255 OPS and .667 slugging percentage, which features two doubles and three RBI.
