March 8, 2012
San Antonio – The St. Mary’s softball team unveiled its new home-run celebration before the home crowd Wednesday.
Several of them, in fact.
Taylor Vidrine, Richelle Morales and Alex Rodriguez all homered in a 7-0 victory over Texas A&M-Kingsville in the front end of the doubleheader, prompting a trio of fun-filled celebrations at the St. Mary’s Softball Field.
The Rattlers gathered around home plate and collectively “Tebowed” following Mirales’ home run, and gathered around the plate and fell backward as if a grenade went off after the other two homers.
“The home-run celebration, we saw it at a high school game,” said Morales, a senior shortstop from San Antonio. “Ever since then it stuck with us. We’d never seen it before. No other team really does it.”
She added: “I’m a huge (Tim) Tebow fan. When I homered, everyone started Tebowing.”
Later in the day, Texas A&M-Kingsville battled back with a 3-2 triumph in Game 2, staving off a Rattler comeback that saw St. Mary’s put a runner on third base with one away in the bottom of the seventh inning.
In Game 1, the Rattlers weren’t just good at the plate. Ace Emily Brittain (So., Corpus Christi, Texas) manned the pitcher’s circle, pitching a complete-game, two-hit shutout of a Javelinas team she no-hit late last month.
Ashley Behabetz (So., Littleton, Colo.) and Taylor Vidrine (Fr., San Antonio) had two RBIs apiece in the opener, while Shelly Lee Zawadzki (Jr., San Antonio) went 2 for 3 at the plate from the leadoff spot.
Vianna Gutierrez (Fr., San Antonio) picked up the Game 2 loss despite striking out four batters. St. Mary’s (14-10) outhit Texas A&M-Kingsville 8-7 in the game, but stranded eight runners. They left the bases loaded once and then stranded Zawadzki at third to end the game.
St. Mary’s will be back in action next Tuesday, when they host Tarleton State in a doubleheader at St. Mary’s Softball Field, where the Rattlers plan to play out the remainder of their home schedule.