SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – It only took one bad inning for the University of the Incarnate Word softball team to lose to visiting Southland Conference rival Lamar University on Friday afternoon, 6-3 at Cardinals Field.

UIW (3-21, 0-7) was playing an excellent game through four innings.  They held a 2-0 lead thanks to some timely hitting, good pitching a solid defense.  Kellen Robles (San Antonio/Smithson Valley HS) and Christy Trevino (San Antonio/Brandeis HS) had run-scoring singles in the third and fourth innings, respectively.  Kristin Hebert (Humble/Atascocita HS) was pitching well and the defense made a key double play in the top of the fourth to keep Lamar (14-11, 7-0) off the scoreboard.

In the fifth inning everything changed.  Lamar loaded the bases with no outs on two hit batsmen and an error.  Casey Cromwell followed with a double to score all three runners.  That was followed by a single and a walk to load the bases when the clouds opened up and the rain came down.  A 47-minute rain delay did not halt the visitors as they scored three more times in the inning to take a commanding 6-2 lead.

UIW got a run back in the bottom of the fifth inning.  Robles led off with a double and went to third on a sacrifice bunt that was botched allowing Taylor Johnson (Schertz/Clemens HS) to reach base.  A wild pitch scored Robles and allowed Johnson to advance to third base.  After a pop up, the Cardinals tried a squeeze bunt, but Laura Napoli made a nice defensive play to field the bunt and get it home in time to nail Johnson.  UIW would not threaten to score again.

UIW finished with six hits and committed four errors.  Hebert pitched a complete game and took the loss while allowing eight hits, two earned runs and a walk while striking out three.  Robles was the only player on the team with more than one hit.

Lamar accumulated eight hits and committed two errors.  Napoli also pitched a complete game allowing six hits, two earned runs and no walks while striking out three.  Sarah Ragsdale and Stephanie Meeuwsen each had two hits while Cromwell had the key double and three RBI's.

The second game of the scheduled doubleheader was rained out.  The teams will try to play two games on Saturday starting at 2 p.m.  If those are also rained out then they will attempt to play a doubleheader on Sunday starting at 2 p.m.
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