| Danye Holmes launched her third round-tripper of the year on Wednesday. |
DENTON ? Freshman Dany? Holmes hit her third home run of the season, but North Texas took advantage of five errors in defeating UTSA, 9-4, on Wednesday afternoon in non-conference softball action at Lovelace Field.
The originally scheduled doubleheader was reduced to a single game, and with the loss, the Roadrunners fell to 12-12 on the season, while the Mean Green improved to 13-16.
Holmes was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer to lead a seven-hit attack for UTSA, while freshman Kristin Kappler went 2-for-3 and sophomore Rudi Cantu was 2-for-4 with a stolen base.
The Roadrunners committed five errors on the day, including three in a seven-run second inning that broke the game open for the Mean Green. Rebecca Waters was 2-for-3 with a grand slam to lead North Texas at the plate, while Kadie Platt also collected two hits.
North Texas struck for a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, including one unearned. Katya Muller led off with an infield single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt that was mishandled and allowed Mariza Martinez to reach. A wild pitch moved up both runners and Muller scored the first run on a ground ball to second base. Martinez then came home on a squeeze bunt by Sarah Jones.
UTSA answered with two in the top of the second, as Kappler singled to right, moved to second on a groundout and to third on an infield single by senior Lindsay Perry. An error on the infield off the bat of senior Kourtney Jones pushed across Kappler and sophomore Mercedes Hessel, who walked.
The Mean Green plated seven unearned runs on five hits and three errors in the second, highlighted by Waters’ grand slam.
The Roadrunners cut the deficit to five runs on Holmes’ two-run blast to center in the fifth, but the Mean Green held on for the win.
Jennifer Smith allowed four runs ? two earned ? on seven hits and struck out five in running her record to 5-5, while senior Amanda Nikolenko gave up just one earned run on five hits in an inning and a third in falling to 5-6.
The Roadrunners now travel to Conway, Ark., for a three-game Southland Conference series at Central Arkansas on Friday-Saturday.