March 13, 2011
San Antonio – With the St. Mary’s Lady Rattlers trailing Newman by three runs early on Saturday, first baseman Jared Gonzalez blasted a three-run shot to even the score in the third inning.
With St. Mary’s down three again two innings later, Gonzalez returned to the plate and did the same.
Led by a pair of three-run blasts from Gonzalez that twice wiped away three-run deficits, the latter of which sparked an 11-run inning in the fifth, St. Mary’s run-ruled Newman 14-6 in five innings at St. Mary’s Softball Fields.
Hours after St. Mary’s won Game 1 of a doubleheader 5-0, Gonzalez, a sophomore from San Antonio, went 4 for 4 with six RBIs and three runs scored to help engineer the series sweep.
“Especially since we were down, I went in with the mindset that if I really, really tried hard, I wasn’t going to get the hit,” Gonzalez said. “I figured if I let loose I’d get the hit.”
The victories helped the Lady Rattlers (18-12 overall) start Heartland Conference play 3-0.
In Game 1, Maricela Bissaro (Fr., San Antonio) went the distance en route to picking up the victory, striking out two while allowing just two hits for her second win of the season.
Bissaro also went 1 for 3 at the plate, driving in one of the Rattlers’ five runs in the process.
Coming in in relief, ace Emily Brittain (Fr., Corpus Christi, Texas) picked up the Game 2 victory, striking out five while allowing three earned runs to improve to 12-5 on the season.
Outfielder Lauren Miller (Sr., Baytown, Texas) went 2 for 4 with four RBIs and two runs scored in the game.