EL PASO, Texas – The University of New Mexico softball team brought the brooms to El Paso Tuesday afternoon as the Lobos claimed a doubleheader sweep over UTEP. The Lobos claimed a 8-2 win in game one and came back in a tough battle to win 7-6 in game two.
The Lobos jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first half inning. The game started off with three straight hits. Senior Mariah Rimmer doubled to center to score freshmen Cheyenne Smith and D’Andra DeFlora. Junior Michala Erickson singled to score Rimmer for a 3-0 lead. Redshirt freshman Jade Gray doubled to left which brought around junior Jasmine Casados for the fourth run. Back-to-back singles from freshman Kasey Halleen and junior Shelbie Franc brought the final two runs across.
The Miners responded with two runs off Lobo starter Tess McPherson. But that was it for the rest of the game.
The Lobos added two more insurance runs, coming in the fifth and sixth innings.In the fifth, Rimmer homered to left field, her third on the season and 16th career home run. In the sixth, the Lobos plated Franc off a Smith double to centerfield.
McPherson faced three batters in the third before the Lobos went to senior Lauren Soles in the circle. Soles allowed just three hits in her four innings of work. Sophomore Krissy Fortner came in to close out the game in the seventh , allowing just one hit.
Soles recorded the victory, her 28th career win, to improve to 3-2 on the season. She faced 15 batters and led the pitching staff with four strikeouts.
Rimmer led the Lobos at the play, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs, a double and a home run. Both Smith and DeFlora went 2-for-4 at the plate with a run scored. Erickson finished with two RBIs.
Game two was a tougher battle for the Lobos. They did get out to an early 1-0 start as Smith scored on DeFlora’s sacrifice fly to right field. But UTEP responded in the second to tie the game up 1-1.
UNM returned the favor back with a run in the third. Rimmer singled to center and later scored on a wild pitch to take a 2-1 lead.
The bats were quiet for an inning and half until the Lobos went up 3-2 in the top of the fifth. Franc led off with a single to center and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Smith. Franc later scored on a sacrifice fly by junior Jasmine Casados.
UTEP had an answer in the fifth, a big answer of three runs to take a 4-3 lead but the Lobos weren’t going down easy as they tied the game up in the sixth off a Erickson bomb to left field, her fourth on the season and 17th career homer.
The Lobos decided to take out starter Colette Robert and put their closer Fortner in to finish out the game. It worked well in the sixth as Fortner shutdown the Miners which gave the Lobos a chance to take the lead and they did.
The Lobos scored three runs in the seventh to take a 7-4 lead over the Miners. With one out, Smith scored on a Casados single. DeFlora came across on a wild pitch and Rimmer scored off a single from Gray.
UTEP wasn’t going down without a battle in the seventh as they scored two runs off Fortner but Fortner forced the final batter to pop out to the Erickson at short to earn her third save on the season and eighth career in just two season.
Robert earned the win in the circle to improve to 7-3 on the season. She allowed four runs, three earned, off nine hits while striking out two in 4.1 innings of work. Fortner allowed two runs off five hits.
At the plate, Rimmer went 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Casados finished with two RBIs while Franc and Smith each went 2-for-3 with a combined three runs scored.
The Lobos will head to their final nonconference tournament of the season this weekend. They will travel to the Easton Tournament, hosted by Cal State Fullerton Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They lead off the weekend with Arkansas and Alabama on Friday. Visit GoLobos.com for stats and recaps.