The University of New Mexico softball team won all the games in their home tournament, the Lobo Classic, Thursday, Feb. 24 to Sunday, Feb. 27 at the Lobo Softball Field. The Lobos beat the University of Texas at El Paso Thursday, North Dakota State University Friday, the University at Buffalo Saturday and Tarleton State University Sunday. The Lobos now have a record of 10-3 and are on a five-game winning streak.
The Lobos had exceptional pitching in their games Saturday and Sunday. Both Amber Linton and Emma Guindon pitched full games and added nine and seven strikeouts to their respective records. Offensively, Andrea Howard shone in both games.
The Saturday night game against the Bulls started almost an hour past the scheduled start time due to the Bulls’ previous late-running game, but nothing could stop the Lobos from ultimately putting the Bulls in their place.
The Lobos started off the game with an electric first inning that put two runs on the board thanks to solid hits from Howard, Emma Bramson and Taryn Young. Despite the frigid winter chill, the team quickly warmed up from the energy of the home crowd.
The second, third and fourth innings all went fairly quickly as the Bulls struggled to hit off Linton, and the Lobos struggled against Bulls pitcher Julia Tarantino. The exception was Howard, who hit a deep home run to center-right field in the bottom of the third inning to make the score 3-0.
The fifth inning is where the train started to come off the rails for the Lobos. The Bulls were able to put three singles and two runs on the board for a much closer ball game of 3-2 that the Lobos couldn’t immediately answer back to.
As UNM ran back to take the outfield in the top of the sixth, their energy shifted. Linton in particular worked to kill the Bulls’ momentum by not allowing a single hit in the inning. Howard led the charge offensively in the bottom of the sixth with her second solo home run of the night that bumped the score up to 4-2. Bramson, Young and Reyan Tuck all hit singles that, with the help of a sacrifice bunt from Briana Martinez, resulted in two more runs. The Lobos went into the seventh inning with a sizable lead of 6-2 and put the Bulls down with a stunning running catch from Howard in center field to end the game.
The Sunday midday game against the Texan Riders had Guindon throw a one-hitter and was the third time the Lobos have run-ruled an opponent, winning the game 8-0 with a walk-off single by Savannah Braun that allowed Bramson to score the winning run.
The pack attack started with a couple of runs in the first inning but really came into play in the second when the team exhausted the entire batting lineup and scored five runs off five hits to make it a 7-0 ball game. The energy of the fans in the stands was through the roof as the Lobos continued to run around the bases.
UNM tried to extend their lead in the third and fourth innings but weren’t successful until they got to the fifth. Two walks and a single left the bases loaded for Braun, who was pinch-hitting for Tuck. At her first at-bat of the season, Braun got her first hit via a walk-off single that resulted in her teammates swarming the field to celebrate their victory over Tarleton.
Howard said she was happy with the final outcome of the Lobo Classic.
“In my five years here, I don't think we've ever been 4-0 in a tournament so I'm really proud of our team right now,” Howard said. “And I think that we can just keep the ball rolling.”
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Shelby Kleinhans is the multimedia editor at the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @BirdsNotReal99
