Pictured: Braylynn Henderson on the mound for the Eagles. She picked up both wins.
By: Justin Hargrove, Assistant Athletic Director
Weather once again played with the schedule for Northeast Texas Community College Athletics. NTCC Softball moved the two-game series with Navarro College to Tuesday, April 25th to get ahead of the rains. The Eagles took game one 8-5 and game two 5-3 to earn the sweep against the Bulldogs.
In game one, starter Braylynn Henderson (West Columbia, Texas) was perfect for the first three innings with three strikeouts, three ground outs and three pop fly outs. Henderson made three of the plays on ground balls back to the pitcher and one pop fly to account for six of the first nine outs.
Inning number one for NTCC saw the Eagles bat around and seven out of nine players in the lineup scored for a big lead NTCC would not surrender. The Eagles took advantage of six walks mixed in three timely hits to make the lead 7-0 after one inning of play.
The Bulldogs got on the board in the fourth inning when they scored four runs to cut the lead to 7-4 after the top of the fourth. NTCC would not score again until the Eagles added one more run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Haley McAlexander (New Boston, Texas) reached with a lead off walk and then stole second base. Rae Lyn Kinard (Lake Jackson, Texas) would get her third hit in game one and doubled to center field to score McAlexander and move the Eagle lead to 8-4.
Navarro snuck one final run in the top of the seventh to make the final 8-5, NTCC the winner in game one. Henderson would go the distance in the game giving up just six hits and striking out six batters on her way to the complete game win.
In game two, Kinard stayed hot and singled with one out to be the Eagles first base runner. She advanced to second on single by Carson Zachry (Mount Pleasant, Texas) and later scored on a single by Giselle Fuentes (Lacissine, LA).
The game would remain 1-0 after one inning of play until Navarro got on the board with three runs in the top of the sixth.
NTCC would not go away down 3-1 and answered the scoring with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning take back the lead 5-3. Jalissa Alvarez started off the Eagle half of the inning with a single and that was followed up by Lily Galaviz (Denton, Texas) reaching on an error by the short stop. Navarro would induce get one out on a pop out to shallow right field. McAlexander reach to load the bases with a single to right field.
Kinard continued her good day at the plate with a single to score Alvarez and bring the score to 3-2 Navarro. Zachry would put the ball in play and score Victoria Giganti (Salado, Texas) who came into run for Galaviz to tie the game at 3-3. Kailey Hancock then doubled to the left field corner to bring the remaining two NTCC runners and put the game away at 5-3.
NTCC would send Anna Green (Ore City, Texas) to the circle to start game two. Green would go five and two-thirds innings giving up no runs, on two hits and striking out three batters.
Daphne Bogenschutz (White Oak, Texas) came in for one out to get the Eagles out of a jam in the fifth inning. Bogenschutz faced one batter in the sixth inning before handing the ball off to game one starter Henderson who would finish the game out for NTCC.
The Eagles are scheduled for one final non-conference home game on Saturday, April 29th against Hill College before finishing conference on the road looking to solidify a spot in the NJCAA Region 14 tournament May 12-15th at Bossier Parish Community College.
