BEAUMONT, Texas - While Lamar University (27-22, 14-10 SLC) honored four seniors for their outstanding careers in Cardinal Red, an early 4-0 deficit vanished after Houston Christian (15-29, 8-16 LC) rallied back to take the final game of the Southland Conference series 9-4 in nine innings Friday at the LU Softball Complex. LU remains in sixth place of the conference and trails by a half-game to fifth place Stephen F. Austin.
Ava Blakely (RBI) and
Makenzie Wright each recorded two hits to lead the Cardinals' offense.
Jayne Sepulveda picked up a hit while she and
Kalie Amos also added an RBI.
Sabrina Jolin (three runs, six hits, three K's) got the start and went 5.1 innings, which put her over 100 innings in her collegiate career. She became the fourth NCAA-DI pitcher from the state of Alaska to achieve this mark.
Reagan Smith (2.2 IP, four runs, five hits, two Ks) was tagged with the loss.
Â
The Huskies put two runners on base in the top of the second before Jolin struck out two batters to get out of trouble. The Cardinals capitalized with two on base in their half of the second as Amos hit a sacrifice fly to center, which scored
Sicily Windham. One inning later,
Cala Wilson reached on an error that scored
Trinity Brandon while Blakely followed with an RBI single to give LU a  3-0 advantage.
Â
LU added to its lead in the bottom of the fourth when Sepulveda drove in Wright to lead 4-0. As the game entered the sixth, the momentum suddenly shifted to HCU as it broke the shutout with three runs. Then with one out in the seventh, the Huskies tied the game at four on an RBI single. The Cardinals had the winning runs on base in both the seventh and eighth innings but stranded both. HCU scored five runs in the top of the ninth and shut down Big Red to secure the series, 9-4.
LU's last regular season home game will take place Tuesday against Sam Houston. The first pitch is scheduled to be thrown at 5:30 p.m.
Â
