April 18, 2009
San Antonio – Arlynda Flores smashed two more homeruns to take over the national lead in that category, helping St. Mary’s University to a 6-4 win in game one and a split of a doubleheader against Lincoln University in Heartland Conference softball action Saturday at Blue Tiger Field.
Flores (Jr., Uvalde) hit two, two-run homeruns in the game, the second of which gave the Rattlers a 5-2 lead in the fifth inning. She went a perfect 3-for-3 with four RBI in the game. On the mound, she picked up her 12th win of the season. Flores now has 23 homeruns this season, one more than Sandy James of Angelo State University, who started the day leading the nation, and three more than both Jessika Anastos of the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and Marti Littlefield of Valdosta State University. Flores is also now just one homerun away from Elizabeth Beyer’s current school record of 24, set in 2005. Flores has at least seven more games to try to break the school record and the national record of 28, set by Carmen Paez of Florida Gulf Coast in 2007.
In the second game of the day, the Rattlers fell behind 3-0 after one inning and 5-1 in the fourth. Jenna Saucedo (Sr., Elmendorf) smacked her fourth homerun of the season to pull the Rattlers within one run, but that was as close as they would get in the 5-3 loss. Taryn Munoz (Jr., Bulverde) took the loss, falling to 15-15 this season.
With the split the Rattlers are 28-28 overall and 19-5 in Heartland Conference. Lincoln is now 12-35, 8-16. St. Mary’s missed out on a chance to tie St. Edward’s University for the conference lead as the Hilltoppers dropped one of two at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. St. Edward’s continues to hold a slim one-game lead over the Rattlers in the Heartland Conference standings. St. Mary’s will return to action on Friday, April 24 at home in a double header when they take on cross town rivals Incarnate Word. The first game begins at 4 p.m.
St. Mary’s 6, Lincoln 4 (Apr 18, 2009 at Jefferson City, Mo.) (Game 1)
Lincoln 5, St. Mary’s 3 (Apr 18, 2009 at Jefferson City, Mo.) (Game 2)