A new weekend brought a new stretch of games for the Aggies on the softball field and after getting swept by the UTEP miners the weekend prior. This set made up for it. It was easier said than done, with their opponent being ranked #25 ranked Liberty who is also the current top seed in Conference USA.
Game one put the ball in Faith Aragon’s hand, with the responsibility to shut down the flames like she did against Sam Houston the last time the Aggies were at home. After one scoreless inning, the Flames scored with the help of Rachel Craine to make the score 1-0. The problem was that Liberty pitcher Elena Escobar shut down Aggie bats through her four innings of action.
Things slowly got worse for the Aggies, as Liberty stacked hit after hit, loading the bases and scoring two more in the fourth and sixth inning as singles from right fielder Rachel Roupe and designated player Brynn McManus before NMSU head coach Kathy Rudolph put in Zantelle Rodriguez to finish the game.
Unfortunately, that move didn’t work. With two more runs in the seventh, NMSU was only able to respond with one run throughout the game courtesy of Riley Carley’s third inning home run to lose 5-1 as the losing streak against the flames rose to four.
A new day, a new game, a second chance for the Aggies. At least that’s before the first pitch was thrown. Jaileen Mancha took the mound and things started out well, but then the barrage came. No homers, just hit after hit to bring in four runs in the second, but the Aggies were unable to respond with Liberty’s Kaylan Yoder keeping the offense silent.
Three innings were enough for NMSU Head Coach Kathy Rudolph. She brought in Rodriguez again but she couldn’t make it out of the fourth, with the Flames scoring six more runs to go up 10-0. With no scoring to respond, the game ended after five innings with Liberty getting 13 hits to NMSUs two and striking out five batters while the Aggies were unable to get any as the losing streak gets to five.
The streak was a big weight the Aggies were eager to get off their backs going into Sundays series finale, as out-fielder Devin Elam explained.
“We were tired of losing,” Elam said. “Actually in our classroom the whiteboard says ‘break the streak’ because we were on a five game losing streak. Today we just thought ‘you know, what do we have to lose,’ and I think that’s what motivated us and I think we really focused on mission and made some adjustments.”
True to her words, the team set out to make the third game the charm– and things were different this time, with Aragon
getting back to her usually self shutting out the Flames throughout five innings. But even though the pitching improved for the Aggies, the effort of Paige Bachman made the game a pitching duel as both teams were deadlocked at 0 as the game entered the sixth inning, who would blink and score first?
As Craine stepped up to bat, a swing into center field brought in the first run and Liberty was up 1-0. The Aggies kept it at one run until it was their turn to bat and with a runner on base. Devin Elam stepped up and hit the ball over the right field wall to go up 2-1 before Kristiana Watson added another run with a hit into right field setting up Aragon to close it out.
“It gives a sense of relief and takes some pressure off our shoulders, especially us middle of the lineup, because we’re the ones that produce the runs,” Elan said. “I think that really helped us on the field and in the batters box.”
Aragon shared her thoughts on a win over a ranked team for the first time in five years.
“I think it’s just a really big deal for us, so I really hope that it carries on to the rest of the season,” she said. “I know we only have a little bit left, but I’m excited to see what we can do.”
Coach Rudolph shared similar thoughts.
“I thing it’s huge and we’re only home one more time and it’ll be senior weekend,” she said. “I had no doubt that we’re a very good team that just wasn’t playing great. But I felt like today I asked us just to play pitch by pitch, and whatever the game asks of us, we just own that moment.”
The Aggies play their series on the road against Western Kentucky University, with the first game being played on Thursday, April 17, at 5 p.m.
