The Eastern New Mexico softball team dropped both contests by final scores of 10-2 and 13-2 in the first leg of a home-and-away series against Lubbock Christian.
The Hounds got on the board early against the Lady Chaps in game number one, but couldn’t manage to slow down a potent Lubbock Christian offense the rest of the day, conceding a total of 25 hits over the course of the two games. Senior Emma Gary drove in the first of those two runs in the bottom half of the first inning in the first game of the day with a dribbler in front of the catcher that scored freshman Iliana Mendoza.
Mendoza advanced by way of a single to begin her quality day at the plate, going 5-for-6 with a run scored and an RBI between the two contests. Her single was followed up by back-to-back walks from junior Samantha Brockman and sophomore Jennifer McElroy to load the bases for Gary.
Freshman Haleigh Behncke came through following the Gary RBI and drove in Brockman from third with an RBI single to the second baseman that couldn’t be fielded in time for an infield hit. The Lady Chaps would take the lead in the top of the third inning with two runs and then enacted the run rule with seven runs in the top of the fourth to finish the game off with the final score 10-2.
Mendoza singled in the bottom of the first to score junior Precious Aguirre to answer a two run top half of the first inning to start off the second game of the doubleheader for Lubbock Christian. Mendoza had an outstanding second game at the plate, going 3-for-3 with the aforementioned RBI.
McElroy hit a solo homerun to lead off the bottom half of the fourth inning to provide the only other run for the Hounds as the Lady Chaps continued to roll and once again ended the game after just five innings.
Eastern New Mexico and Lubbock Christian will finish up the second leg of their home and away series on Apr. 2 in Lubbock, Texas in a doubleheader scheduled for 2 p.m.
