MOBILE, Ala. – Troy hadn’t managed a hit and had only one baserunner through four innings against UT Arlington pitcher Jessica Adams, but Trojan co-head coach Taylor Smartt was confident things would change late in their Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship opener.
“I knew the more that we kept fighting through the at-bats, eventually it would come,” Smartt said. “We got a little bit of a break, and we took advantage of it.”
A couple of UTA errors in the fifth inning helped plate two unearned runs, and the Trojans came back from a 1-0 deficit to take a 2-1 win over the Mavericks in their tournament opener here Wednesday.
Adams and Troy’s Leanna Johnson had tied up in an old fashioned pitchers’ duel, with the teams combining for only six hits in the contest. Two of UTA’s four hits came from Sophie Wideman, whose fifth-inning single plated Jessica Carreon to give the Mavericks a 1-0 lead.
However, Anslee Finch’s leadoff ground ball in the bottom of the sixth was mishandled, and a throw on Audra Thompson’s following sacrifice bunt failed to get an out at second base. Candela Figueroa followed with another sacrifice to move both runners into scoring position, and Kennedi Gaton’s deep sacrifice fly to left field plated Finch with the tying run.
Number nine hitter Logan Calhoun added a clean single to left field, Troy’s first hit of the game, to score Thompson with the eventual game-winner.
“Kennedi swung at a bad pitch (earlier in the at-bat), and she just refocused and found a way to get it done with two strikes,” Smartt said. “Just very proud of that at bat. Then Logan, with the clutch two-out RBI, we really needed that to put us up. Obviously when the bottom of the lineup produces, it really gives us a good chance to win.”
The fourth-seeded Trojans (30-19) advance to play top-seeded Louisiana in the winner’s bracket semifinals at 10 a.m. Thursday. UT-Arlington (22-26) will face the loser of Wednesday’s final game between South Alabama and Georgia State in a 7 p.m. Thursday game.
Adams (12-17) gave up only a two-out walk to Taylor McKinney in the first inning until Troy’s fifth-inning rally. Other than the two runs, she did not allow any other Trojan past second base.
“Jessica did a great job on the mound,” said UTA coach Peejay Brun. “We’ve only had her for one semester, and it’s been her and coach Erin (pitching coach Erin Arevalo) who have been great together. From when we first started, I feel like she’s a pitcher that has a bright future. She does a great job of keeping batters off balance a little and hitting her spots.”
Johnson (20-11) was also up to the challenge despite getting called for numerous illegal pitches, which contributed to her six walks allowed. She struck out six in a 141-pitch effort and stranded UTA baserunners in every inning, and only Jessica Carreon made it past second base when she walked and scored on Wideman’s first of two hits in the fifth inning.
“Leanna obviously did a really good job of handling the illegal pitches and fighting through the adversity that she was facing,” Smartt said. “She wasn’t letting it affect her. She was working in and out, spinning the ball and making them chase things up in the zone, what she’s done all year.”
UTA stranded nine baserunners including Wideman reaching base four times on two walks and two hits to go with her fifth-inning RBI.
“Both pitchers did such a great job on the mound,” Brun said. “It was going to come down to the team that was going to make less mistakes, or the team that capitalizes on those mistakes, and I think Troy did that today. We had a couple of defensive mistakes, but you can’t really be upset. When it’s a game like that, 2-1, that’s softball, I love seeing games like that. We’re just going to have to battle back.”