CONROE, Tex. – Chadron State mounted a seventh-inning comeback against St. Mary's, but the Rattlers recovered to walk it off in the bottom half of the inning and emerge with a 3-2 victory over the Eagles on Saturday.
Trailing 2-0 after six innings, the Eagles scored twice in their final at-bat as
Payton Sullivan's two-out RBI single knotted the score at 2-2, but St. Mary's led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and eventually won the game on a walk-off fielder's choice.
Freshman
Brynn Trujillo made her first collegiate start and kept the Eagles in the game with a strong start. The Commerce City, Colorado native pitched 6.1 innings and allowed just two earned runs (three total) on five hits with five strikeouts and four walks. Trujillo threw 107 pitches.
Chadron State finished the game with seven hits, marking the first time in the young season that CSC outhit its opponent.
Elizabeth Thorngren finished 2-for-3 on the day and was the only Eagle with multiple hits.
Neither team scored through three innings before St. Mary's scored twice in the fourth. With one out, Emily Ayala walked for the Rattlers and scored on a triple by Iliana Melendez. Neveah Hallmark followed with a bunt angle to score Melendez, but Trujillo wriggled out of the inning without further damage.
The score stayed 2-0 until the seventh. Freshman
Amber Boland led off with an opposite-field single and was replaced by pinch-runner
Elia DeLozier, who advanced to second on a groundout and to third on a Thorngren single.
A wild pitch scored DeLozier and moved Thorngren to second, making the score 2-1, and Thorngren tagged up on a flyout by
Charley Pitrat to get the tying run 90 feet away with two outs. On a 2-0 count,
Payton Sullivan came through with a single through the left side to tie the score and force a bottom of the seventh inning.
With Trujillo still in the game, the Rattlers got a lead-off single and a one-out walk to put two runners on. A key passed ball moved the runners up 90 feet and took away the conventional double-play opportunity. Trujillo got a ground ball from Raegan Tennill to second base, but pinch-runner Peyton Miers broke for home and beat the throw to give St. Mary's a walk-off win.
The Rattlers are now 4-0 while the Eagles are 0-3. Chadron State concludes its five-game road trip in Texas tomorrow with a pair of games against No. 1-ranked UT Tyler and No. 13-ranked Angelo State, which are set for 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. MT.
