Sunday, February 18, 2018
PORTALES, NM – Junior pinch hitter Courtney Vigil stepped to the plate in the sixth inning and drove a go-ahead two-run blast over the left field fence for the decisive runs in Sunday’s Lone Star Conference series finale. The blast lifted the Greyhounds (8-5; LSC 3-0) to a 7-5 win over cross-state rival Western New Mexico University (1-12; LSC 0-3) and a three-game series sweep.
“What a weekend,” said Head Coach Katie Welborn. ” I am so proud of the resilience of my players, the mindset of my seniors, and the grit of my pitchers. When Courtney Vigil steps off the bench to go hit a two run – go-ahead – bomb, she shows the mindset of the team this year. Proud of the girls, I cannot wait to see what they do on Tuesday.”
Leaving the Park
- Vigils’ homer was the first of her career
- With the 13th homerun of the season, the Hounds maintained their average of one per game
Inside the Series
- The Hounds evened their home record against WNMU at 8-8
- Eastern has now won six consecutive games in the series
- Four of those six games have been decided by two runs or less
In the Game
- Eastern scored in each of the first four innings to build a 5-1 lead
- Samantha Brockman, Samantha Glover and Karina Moreno all hit sacrifice flies to tie the Greyhound record for sacrifice flies in a game (vs USW, 2/22/2011)
- Kamalani Peneku added a RBI single and Precious Aguirre brought in a run with a squeeze bunt
- In the fifth inning, the Mustangs sent nine batters to the plate and capitalized on a Greyhound error to plate four runs on five hits to tie the game
- With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Vigil stepped into the batters box with pinch runner Kayla Marshall on first as the go-ahead run
- With a 2-2 count, Vigil homered inside the left field foul poll
- With two outs in the seventh, Western New Mexico loaded the bases with three hit batsmen, but relief pitcher Hanna Gary fielded a ground ball and threw to first for the final out of the game
Inside the Box Score
- Western New Mexico held a 14-11 edge in total hits but stranded 16 base runners in the game
- ENMU’s lead-off batter reached base in five out of six innings
- Gary blanked WNMU on two hits over the final two innings and struck out two batters
- Aguirre, Elena Garcia and Erikka Burke all hit 2-for-3
- Burke and Jennifer McElroy both doubled for the Hounds
- Alicia Habitzreuther batted 3-for-4 for the Mustangs with a homer
Up Next
- The Eastern New Mexico University softball team will host a doubleheader against New Mexico Highlands on Tuesday
- The first game is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. MT
