Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 Odessa, Texas—Looking for a shot to be included in Heartland Conference post-season play, the OPSU Softball team took the field against the University of Texas-Permian Basin with an increased sense of purpose. The three-game conference series took place Friday and Saturday in Odessa, Texas where the Aggies did exactly what they set out to do; sweep the Lady Falcons and add three Heartland wins to their record.

After pitching 8.2 innings against Sterling College last Wednesday, Arledge went a total of 16.2 over the weekend, throwing in all three games against the Lady Falcons and earning the win in each. For the week Arledge gave up a mere four runs on 14 hits and threw a whopping 37 strikeouts in her 25.1 innings of work.

It was Arledge who took the circle in game one against UTPB and, with the help of a strong Aggie defense, she held the Lady Falcons to three hits for one run; she totaled ten strikeouts in the first game. She not only led at the rubber, she jump-started the Aggie bats in the first inning with a two-run double to left-center to put the Aggies on the board early. Arledge later crossed home from second base on an error by left field to put the Aggies up 3-0 after one inning of play.

Both teams were held scoreless through the fifth inning and Brooklyne Bolton brought the game back to life with a solo home run to lead off the sixth. The Lady Falcons answered with one run in the bottom of the inning. The Aggies held the score at 4-1 to gain win number one of the series.

Senior Taylor Richardson started her final college game in the circle for OSPU in the second game of Friday's double-header. Richardson controlled the plate and held the Aggies' lead through 3.1 innings. After a scoreless first inning, the Aggies came alive in the second scoring five runs on a double by Laura Trehal and three-run homer by Cortney Clark. The Lady Falcons scored on run in the bottom of the second, but trailed the Aggies 1-4.

Clark came through with another big hit in the top of the fourth; a double to left-center. She was followed up by Ashley Jarzombek who blasted a triple to right-center for two RBI to pull the Aggies up 7-1. Two more UTPB runs scored in the bottom of the inning which prompted a pitching change bringing Arledge back to the rubber.

OPSU added one run in the fifth off a sac-fly by Jarzombek. Arledge threw one pop-up and two strikeouts in the bottom of the fifth to hold the score at 8-3. The Aggies put an early end to the game with a big sixth inning scoring another five runs and getting the 13-3 run-rule victory. Darcie Wilson led off with a solo homer; Bolton later doubled scoring one run for the Aggies and Faith Guzman brought in two runners on a single with an extra base on the throw. The final run came through on a single by Jarzombek with one out and runners on the corners.

Arledge was back in the circle on Saturday for the series finale and pitched a complete seven innings allowing four hits for one earned run; six fly-outs, nine ground-outs and six strikeouts kept the Lady Falcons from scoring in the first six innings. UTPB's only run came through in the bottom of the seventh off a lead-off triple followed up with a ground-out for the RBI. The Aggies brought in nine runs in game three to seal the deal on the series sweep with a final score of 9-1.

Wilson hit sac-fly in the first inning to score Jarzombek from third base, and came through again in the third with a two-run double to give the Aggies a 3-0 lead. With two OPSU runners on base, senior Laura Trehal hit a single through the right side and then advanced on an error by right field to score Bolton.

The Aggies ensured the win with five runs in the seventh inning. Wilson stepped up once again and hit a double to right-center for three RBI and Regina Guth later sent a runner home on a single to right. Guzman wrapped up the win with a double to left field to score the final run for the Aggies.

Cortney Clark led the series in batting with a .600 average going three of five with a double and a home run for a total of three RBI; Clark also led in slugging percentage with 1.400 and scored two runs. Arledge hit .500 on the weekend with two hits on four at-bats and one run scored. Darcie Wilson led in RBI totaling seven in three games; she also totaled 18 putouts at first base. Ashley Jarzombek was the leading scorer with four runs.

Assistant Coach Luisa Bar stated, "It was great to see how the girls came together for the last series of the year and played very well all through the lineup. Our seniors both played a good weekend too which was great to see. Even though we just missed on punching our ticket to the conference tournament, we did all we could in this last series and even got our first run-rule win of the year."

The Aggies finish their season with an overall record of 16-34 and seven wins in the Heartland Conference. They ended strong winning five of the last 8 games.