getting back on track. Losing their first game against Colorado Christian University (CCU) 3-6 on Saturday, the day started slowly but the Mavericks managed to snag the 10-3 win during the second game.
In the first game, the Mavericks allowed two runs in the first to start off the game, but in the bottom of the first, a three-run home run by Brooke Hodgson gave the Mavericks their first and only lead of the game.
The Cougars would then take back the lead in the third with a two-run home run in which would seal the win for CCU.
It was the second most runs in a game the Mavericks had allowed all season, showing that the team wasn’t operating at full throttle. The pitching also saw seven strikeout form Kimbri Herring and three out of Hodgson. Hodgson allowed zero hits for the three innings she played.
“We played better for the second game, we played well enough to win,” Head coach Ben Garcia said. “We have been playing very tentatively. We have been playing not to lose and when you play that way bad things happen. You make mistakes and we don’t press, hit the ball, get our runners through. We don’t play like we ordinarily do.”
The second game saw the Mavericks looking much more like their old selves. Winning 10-3, the jets were on for the second game and McKenzie Surface even made her appearance back to the field after getting injured just last week.
Despite the injured knee, Surface managed to pull through and win her 68th career game in which is the most in school history.
“We didn’t plan on playing her, but she said that she was ready,” Garcia said. “You could tell that she wasn’t 100 percent, but she gave us 100 percent. She pitched a good game.”
In Surface’s return, she only mustered two strikeouts but managed to only allow four hits.
The rest of the Mavericks lineup did their job at the plate and managed to make up for the lack of runs from the first game.
“The credit goes to our bench players,” Garcia said. “They have not let up. From the cheering standpoint and keeping the girls involved.”
CMU took the lead right from the start with a two-run homer from AnnMarie Torres. Seven different Mavericks help account for the 12 total hits in which allowed CMU to come away with the victory.
The Mavericks will hope to catch themselves in their slipping numbers during the next doubleheader against CCU on Sunday. They will be looking to enforce the good things from the win today and fix the bad ones from both, then they will be back on the track to winning consistently.
