| Sophomore Ashley Kappler had a pair of RBI doubles on Sunday afternoon. |
HUNTSVILLE – Sophomore Ashley Kappler had a pair of RBI doubles, but Lauren Burns drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the eighth inning and Sam Houston State rallied for a 4-3 victory against UTSA on Sunday afternoon at the Bearkat Softball Complex.
With the win, the Bearkats completed the series sweep of the Roadrunners and improved to 9-14 overall and 3-6 in the Southland Conference. UTSA fell to 7-17 and 3-6.
One of Kappler’s two doubles came in the top of the first extra panel and it plated senior Chelsey Chapman, who reached on a base hit to left and moved to second on a walk to senior Rudi Cantu, and broke a 1-1 tie. UTSA put up another insurance run on a two-out single up the middle of the infield by sophomore Laura Little that sent Cantu home from third.
The two-run lead would not hold. Erin Burford led off the bottom of the frame with a double to left center and one-out walks to Morgan Mikulin and Shelbi Tucker loaded the bases. Calli Wood drew a walk to make it 3-2 and Ashley Isbell singled to right field to knot the score at 3-all. Burns then was handed a free pass to force the winning run home.
Sam Houston took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI double by Wood, but UTSA answered in the top of the sixth on the first of Kappler’s doubles which pushed senior Kelly Cato, who reached on an infield single, home from second.
Mikulin picked up her third win of the series to run her record to 6-9. She allowed three runs on six hits in three frames in relief of Tori Benevidez, who tossed five innings of one-hit ball. Junior Danye Holmes suffered the loss to fall to 2-6, as she walked five and allowed three runs on five hits in four frames.
The Roadrunners return home to host McNeese State next weekend at Roadrunner Field.