LAWTON – The Aggie softball team made a big statement on Friday, sweeping No. 6 Angelo State in a doubleheader with 9-0 and 5-1 wins at McMahon Field to open Lone Star Conference play.
In a loaded conference, Cameron opened league play against the top-10 ranked Belles who entered the day with just one loss in 16 games this season.
Kayla Adams' squad used a couple of solid pitching outings and some big hits to go 2-0 on the opening day of LSC games.
Second-year player
Jocelyn Bright was the first CU hurler to hold the Belles in check. The Burkburnett, Texas native got the ball in game one and went on to giving up just two hits while walking four and striking out a pair in the shutout.
Bright only had to pitch five innings as the Cameron bats were locked in against ASU starter Torrey Hogan, striking for nine runs on 10 hits.
It all began in the bottom of the first when leadoff hitter
Khmari Edwards sent a ball way over the left field fence. Just a few batters later
Josie Swafford delivered a two-out RBI single up the middle to bring in
Kylie French and give the Aggies a 2-0 lead.
The next inning Edwards struck again, this time with two outs and
Kaiden Boren on base, putting CU up 4-0 with a homer to left center.
Karis Clark followed her with a solo shot, making it back-to-back blasts to give Bright a 5-0 cushion on the mound.
Cameron's biggest inning came in the fourth as Edwards added another extra-base hit, hitting a double to right center to bring home pinch-runner
Kelsye Loughman to open the 4-run frame. French drove in Edwards on a single and then Clark scored on a wild pitch. The final frame came when
Breley Webb brought home French on a sacrifice fly ball to deep left.
With a 9-0 lead, Bright worked around a one-out walk in the top of the fifth to secure the win, her fifth on the young season.
Edwards finished game one going 3-3 with four RBI and three runs scored. French and Boren both added two hits with Clark and French both scoring twice in the Aggie win.
In game two, the veteran lefty Webb got the ball for the Black and Gold. Like Bright, she got the benefit of an early lead as Swafford delivered a clutch two RBI single in the first after battling in an 8-pitch at-bat with two outs.
Boren added to the Aggie lead in the fifth as she homered to right center, bringing home
Mikayla Richmond on the hit and making it a 4-0 game.
Angelo State scored their first and only run of the doubleheader in the sixth on a groundout to second but Webb was able to strand a runner on base by getting the next batter to pop out.
The Aggies got that run back in the bottom of the frame, as Webb tripled off the top of the left field fence and then came in to score two batters later a
Madyson Marvulli single through the right side of the infield.
Webb got into another sticky situation in the seventh, loading the bases with one out after three straight ASU singles. The Yukon, Okla. native settled in a got leadoff hitter Ashlyn Lerma to hit one of the ground to French at third, who got the runner down at home to prevent the run, and then got Lindsey Evans to line out to Edwards to end the game.
Webb gave up just the one run on six hits and walked just one batter while striking out eight to earn her fourth victory of 2022.
Cameron's five hits were spread across the bats of French, Webb, Swafford, Marvulli, and Boren with Swafford and Boren providing two RBI each.
The Aggies have won five straight games, moving their overall record this season to 14-6. They take on another tough team on Saturday when Lubbock Christian visits McMahon Field for a doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m. The Lady Chaps are currently receiving votes in the NFCA top-25 poll and swept No. 18 Oklahoma Christian in a pair of one-run games on Friday.
