By: Justin Hargrove, NTCC Assistant Athletic Director
Northeast Texas Community College Softball headed north to take on Eastern Oklahoma State College on Saturday, earning a split against the Mountaineers. NTCC won game one of the day 9-0 behind stellar pitching from Averie Ayers.
Ayers did not give up any runs and only allowed five hits and two walks as she struck out four on the day. Averie needed just 83 pitches to take care of Eastern Oklahoma State.
Ayers helped her cause by having a nice day at the plate going two for three with a triple, and a homerun with 4 RBI’s in game one. Ayers was joined by fellow Eagles Brooklyn Manes, Raylei Merrell, and Haylee Wilson with homeruns in game one of the series. Manes would go two for two with two RBI’s.
Game two of the day saw Eastern Oklahoma get revenge with a 7-6 victory over the Eagles. NTCC would pick up in game two were they left off scoring three runs in the first inning and adding one more in the second to lead 4-0. Eastern Oklahoma would follow that up with three runs in the second and one run in the third to tie the game at 4-4.
After giving up three runs in the fifth, NTCC tried to answer back in the sixth and scored two runs but fell just short in the comeback attempt.
Kadi Downs led the way offensively going four for four in game two. Brooklyn Manes again had two hits along with Haylee Wilson and Lauren Isbell. Wilson hot her second homerun of the day in game two and Pearl Perry and Lauren Isbell would also homer in the loss.
The pithcing staff for game two consisted of Kadi Downs, Collyn Shuricht, and Emily Cole. The Eagle pitchers would strike out six batters in the combined effort.
NTCC will be on the road Monday, March 2nd as they travel to Cisco Junior College and will return home to face Eastern Oklahoma State College again next Saturday, March 7th at 1:00pm in a double header contest.
