Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 San Antonio, Texas—In their first Heartland Conference series of the season, the Oklahoma Panhandle State University softball team faced stiff competition this weekend against the nationally-ranked, perennial league-leaders of St. Mary's University.

The Rattlers have claimed twelve conference tournament championships and were 12-5 on the season entering the series with the Aggies; OPSU has gotten off to a good start this year and met St. Mary's with eight wins under their belts (8-9). The reigning conference co-champs proved worthy of their accolades, sweeping OPSU with three wins on the weekend, including two five-inning shutouts (0-8, 6-8, 0-9).

Freshman pitcher Janna Ruether started for the Aggies in Friday's first matchup and took her fourth loss in the first inning, unable to get an out and giving up earned runs to all three batters faced on just one hit. Senior Samantha Arledge relieved Ruether and got the three outs, but not before she allowed an additional two runs to score. The Rattlers took five runs in the first inning and held the Aggies to just one hit and zero runs. St. Mary's brought through two runs in the third and one in the fourth, as the Aggies remained scoreless with only two hits in the game. Anyssa Barbosa led off the first and third innings with singles, but efficient pitching and a double play by the Rattlers left OPSU runners on base for the shutout victory in game one. Hope Russell earned a win in the circle for St. Mary's in four innings of work.

Julia Ibarra led off in the circle for OPSU in game two of Friday's double-header and went six innings and threw three strikeouts. Ibarra allowed just two hits in the first two innings and the score remained 0-0 going into the third. The Aggies struck first scoring one run in the top of the inning as Barbosa reached on a fielder's choice and was sent home after two batters walked and one advanced on a fielding error. The Rattlers answered with two runs in the bottom of the third to go ahead 2-1. Zero runs came through in the fourth, but OPSU's Madison Heathington drove a double with two on and two out in the fifth to add two RBI and put the Aggies in the lead (3-2). St. Mary's got four runs off three hits in the bottom of the fifth and took in two more in the sixth to edge ahead 8-3. Heathington stepped up with a three-run homer over centerfield in the seventh, but the final two outs followed and the Aggies fell short of victory. Ibarra took the loss with twelve hits and three earned runs and now owns a 3-4 record on the season). St. Marys' pitcher Jordan Russell got her fifth win in five innings with four hits, two earned runs and seven strikeouts.

Saturday saw Arledge starting at the rubber for OPSU and Kristi Rangel pitched for the Rattlers. The Aggies' Ashley Jarzombek spoiled a would-be no-hitter right off the bat hitting a lead-off single to start the game. That was the only hit allowed by Rangel for the game as she took the win in five innings with six strikeouts in 21 batters faced. Arledge got her second loss of the season giving up 11 hits and nine earned runs; she threw three strikeouts. For the series OPSU averaged .150 in batting and totaled nine hits on weekend; the Rattlers batted .429 and totaled six doubles and two homeruns.

OPSU Softball fans can get a glimpse of the Aggies at home this week with a mid-week matchup against New Mexico Highlands on Wednesday. The double-header starts at 1 p.m. The Aggies will resume Heartland Conference play on the road next week with games against Texas A&M-International March 11-12 in Laredo, Texas.