The Trinidad State Junior College Lady Trojan Softball team traveled to Nebraska this past week and came home with four wins and two losses to bring their season record to 28-17 and to pull ahead of Lamar into third place.
“This was a very successful road trip,” TSJC Softball coach Steve Swazo said. “Anytime you can come home with four road wins out of six games is a good thing. The girls did a great job of playing hard all weekend.”
On Saturday, TSJC traveled to Western Nebraska to face the first place Lady Cougars. The Trojans were saddled with two losses by the scores of 11-1 and 10-2. In the first game Trinidad could only muster two hits, a double by Nikole Morgan and a RBI single by Alyse Billick. Julia Diehl picked up the loss.
In the second game, Trinidad had four hits in the contest but could only score two runs falling10-2. Kendace Bonner (1-for-3), Julia Diehl (1-for-3), Anneliese Lange (1-for-2 with 2 RBI) and Alyse Billick (1-for-2) provided the lone hits for the Lady Trojans. Katie Smith took the loss.
“I don’t know if it was the week layoff in between games, but we didn’t hit the ball like we were capable of,” Swazo said. “The weather conditions were terrible but yet, they also had to play in those same conditions and they adapted better than we did.”
On Sunday, Trinidad traveled to McCook and came away with an 18-12 victory in 12 innings and an 11-8 win. In the first game, it took a 6-run 12th inning to secure the win for the Lady Trojans. The big blow coming from Yadira Jacquez hitting a two-run homerun. Julia Diehl and Nikole Morgan also connected on homeruns in the 12-inning marathon. Tanisha Bradford was 5-for-8 and Julia Diehl had 4 RBI’s and picked up the win in relief.
Game two had Trinidad putting the game away with three runs in the 6th inning to escape with the 11-8 victory. Bradford again had the hot bat going 4-for-4 in the game and Yadira Jacquez was 3-for-4 with 2 RBI. Nikole Morgan hit her second homerun of the day and Rachel Lovato picked up the victory for her third win of the season.
“That first game was a nail biter going 12 innings,” the TSJC softball coach said. “You have to give McCook credit for not giving up when they were down early, but then a lot of credit goes to my girls for playing their hearts out for the full 12 innings and finding a way to score some big runs in the final inning. This was a big win for the girls.”
Monday it was on to North Platte where the Lady Trojans faced the Lady Knights and came away with two wins.
In game one, the Trojans connected for 13 hits in the game scoring runs in the first, second, fifth and sixth innings for the victory. Yadira Jacquez hit a homerun in the contest while Kendace Bonner, Anneliese Lange, Alyse Billick, and Crystal Miller each had two hits to pace the Trojan hitting attack. Julia Diehl picked up the victory in relief.
Game two came down to TSJC putting up a 9-spot in the top of the fifth inning to end the game on the 8-run mercy rule. Kayla Litton hit a 2-run homerun while Bonner, Miller and Jacquez each had 3 hits in the contest for the Lady Trojans. Sophomore Rachel Brug picked up the victory.
“I didn’t know how our girls would play because we were at the end of our road trip and the extra inning game the night before took a lot out of them. They showed a lot of character in coming back in both games,” Swazo said. “I thought we had some timely hits from all the girls and that was nice to see.”
The Lady Trojans (28-17 and 13-11 in Region IX play) will now travel to Pratt, Kansas for a 4-game series Saturday and Sunday and then get ready for the Region IX tournament that begins the first week of May. |
