PORTALES, N.M. – Cameron held off late inning charge from Eastern New Mexico in game one for their seventeenth win in a row but they would fall 7-3 in the nightcap for their first loss in over a month.
The Aggies won game one 7-6 and took the four game series to improve to 24-3 overall and 7-1 in Lone Star Conference play.
Cameron's win did not come easy in game one after they fell behind 2-0 after a homer in the first inning by ENMU. A three run inning that was spurred in part from a Zia error allowing two unearned runs to come in,
Tara Martini also hit sacrifice fly for a RBI in the inning.
After a scoreless fourth, ENMU managed to load the bases with two outs and a single to
Kelsey Watson resulted in the tying run; a fly ball out ended the inning without any further damage.
The Aggies would retake the lead in the final inning after Martini hit her second sacrifice fly of the game to give CU a 4-3 advantage and later
Lauren Renneker gave the Ags three insurance runs off a homer.
With the four run lead, Cameron needed each run in the bottom of the seventh after ENMU got a run off sacrifice fly and a dropped fly ball that would have ended the game but scored two more runs. However, the rally ended with a fly ball out to give CU the win.
Watson (11-1) went the distance for the complete, allowing four earned runs, and striking out nine batters.
Cameron had seven hits with
Misty Dooley having two runs and two hits.
The Aggie luck quickly ran out in the final game of the series after the Zias tapped in six runs in the first three innings off CU starter
Katelyn Craker. Cameron did knock in a solo homer from Renneker, which was her twelfth of the season in the second, and Martini matched her season total with a solo homer in the fourth to make it a 6-2 game.
Eastern New Mexico opened the bottom half of the inning with two doubles and extended the lead back to five before
Breezy McComas hit CU's third solo homer of the game but it would be the Aggies final run of the game.
Craker (5-1) was charged for the loss;
Sonora Zukerman tossed the final four innings and gave up one run.
With the split on Sunday, the Zias are 15-13 overall and 3-9 in league play.
Cameron will return home to open a four game series with West Texas A&M starting this coming Friday.
