LAWTON, Okla. (March 5, 2012) — Cameron’s softball team went 1-1 in Monday’s doubleheader against Truman State, falling 10-6 in game one, while picking up a 10-9 win in game two.

“Our goal was to win both but battling back to at least secure the split was a positive,” said Head Coach Beth Watson. “They hit the ball really well … our pitchers seemed to be a little off. And, it seemed every mistake we made, they took advantage of it. We had some defensive miscues that in our past games we haven’t committed. But, we did a better job hitting than we have in the last five games. In game two, we’d lose the lead and fight right back to get it back .We hung in there and got good hits in key situation.”

“If there’s anything to take away from today, it was positive in that we kept after it. There have been some games where we relinquished the lead and didn’t have any fight in us. It was a great thing to see.”

Cameron’s (9-9, 0-3) Cheyenne Brown (4-5) took the circle for game one and picked up the loss. Kelsy Hebert (2-2) threw a complete game in a seesaw game two, picking up her second victory of the season on a strikeout with the winning run at the plate.

“It was good to see Kelsy (Hebert) battle back and hang with it,” Watson said. “She threw really good pitches last two innings to get key outs. She made some adjustments and went more to the change-ups and off-speed stuff. I think that (ending the game on a strikeout) is big. Typically, we don’t look for Kelsey to get many strike outs.”

The Bulldogs (6-9) pulled ahead early in game one, picking up six runs in the first two innings and added four more in the fourth and fifth innings. Truman picked up 14 hits in the game, with three homeruns, and took advantage of three Aggie errors to pick up the majority of its runs.

Leslie Martini picked up two RBI in the first two three innings and Leah Trousdale came around to score on a Bulldog error to make the game 6-3.

Going into the bottom of the fifth, CU trailed 10-3 but fought until the very end, making it a close game. Trousdale started the inning off with a single up the middle, followed by Misty Dooley who reached on an error by the Bulldog second baseman. A Drew Wright double to right center scored Trousdale and Dooley, while Martini picked up her third RBI of the game on a double to left center, scoring Wright.

Cameron was unable to plate anymore runners in the game, as the Bulldogs were able to slow down the Aggie bats.

Game two started out in similar fashion, as the Bulldogs hit two solo homeruns in the first two innings to go up 2-0.

But Cameron responded in the third inning with three runs to take the lead, 3-2. Martini was again the hot bat, connecting on a three run bomb to leftfield.

Truman State responded with three runs of their own in the top of the 4th to take a 5-3 lead. The Bulldogs runs came on back-to-back homeruns by Mary Manley and Cate Simon.

Cameron, however, refused to let the game slip away and it was again Martini who came through for CU. The Aggies loaded the bases early in the frame, and a Wright single plated the first run of the inning, scoring Amanda Karth. Truman changed pitchers to try and throw off Martini’s timing, but it was unsuccessful, as she hit a 2-run single up the middle to make the score 6-5 in CU’s favor.

Both teams battled until the end, each scoring four runs over the next three innings to make the final score 10-9. Going into the final inning, the Black and Gold appeared to have the game in control with a 10-6 lead, but TSU was able to string together multiple hits on Hebert. But the sophomore pitcher responded with big pitches when she needed them, including a strike-out to end the game.

Martini was the offensively leader for Cameron through both games, going 6-8 with 8 RBI and one run scored. Wright was also impressive, finishing 6-8 with 5 RBI and three runs scored.

“When you get that kind of production out of your three and four (batters), that’s a pretty good day,” Watson said. “I wish we could have had pulled out the victory. But, as a team I think we’ve got to do a better job of adjusting to umpire’s strike zone. It was tight, but consistent for sure. There are three strike zones in the game, the batter’s, the pitcher’s and the umpire’s. The third is the most important and we need to recognize that.”

Cameron will travel to Edmond tomorrow to take on UCO (13-3) in an afternoon doubleheader.  

“When UCO was in our league, we’ve had some outstanding games with them,” Watson said. “I hate the fact that we are not in the same league anymore. They are a good program with quality wins.”

The coach said that in order to beat a team of their caliber, the team defense needs to play better than it did in today’s games, totaling four errors.

“I’m hoping it was a fluke,” Watson said. “We’ve really done an excellent job of taking care of groundballs in the infield. Unfortunately, we lost track of that today. But, I’m not overly concerned because we are very solid. We have great leadership in the outfield and infield. Typically our infield is able to take care of anything that comes our way. If we dwell on that tomorrow, it’s not going to be good. So, we move on.”