CU softball uses homers to spark sweep; Aggies baseball sweep

SILVER CITY, N.M.—Cameron University’s softball team pounded out 27 hits, nine of those being home runs, to help the Aggies race to a doubleheader sweep of Western New Mexico Saturday afternoon.

The Aggies got a pair of home runs from Madysen Boutwell, one a grand slam, in a 9-5 victory in the first game of the Lone Star Conference doubleheader and then CU had six home runs in a 13-7 victory in the second game.

Emma Johansen’s club climbed to 16-11 overall and 12-10 in the Lone Star Conference. The teams conclude the series with a noon game today and the Aggies will return home to face St. Edward’s with a series to start Friday.

Boutwell’s grand slam got CU off to a 4-0 lead after the top of the first inning but the Mustangs came back with a pair in the bottom of the first. Kelsey Creech added a solo home run in the second and Boutwell clobbered a solo shot in the third to add some insurance which was important when the hosts rallied for three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut the CU lead to one, 7-6.

It stayed that way until Cameron got the bats going in the top of the seventh with a Rylee Ross RBI single followed by a Presleigh Payne RBI single. And Ross stole home when Payne got caught in a rundown and managed to extend the play long enough to allow the final run to score.

Joycelyn Bright got the pitching victory, working all seven innings while allowing five hits and five runs, all earned. She walked three and fanned six to run her record to 7-3 on the season.

CU leadoff hitter Taylor Rowley, Boutwell, and Kyndel McDaniel each ripped a pair of hits and Boutwell’s five RBIs was the deciding factor in that game.

Rowley and Kaiden Boren got the Aggies out in front in the second game as they both homered, with Boren’s blast coming after Creech had reached in front of the CU catcher.

WNMU came back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second but Tinley Schmidgal got those back with a two-run single before being thrown out at second trying to stretch the hit into a double.

Then came the big bats again in the fourth as Rowley and Creech hit solo home runs to extend Cameron’s lead to 7-4 after four innings. The Mustangs got close with a pair of runs in the fifth but Cameron added two more runs in the sixth and four more in the seventh to erase all doubt.

Schmidgal hit a two-run blast in the sixth and then Creech had a three-run dinger in the seventh as the Aggies took command. Schmidgal wound up getting the pitching win, working the final five innings in relief of Reed. Schmidgal, a junior from Yuma, Ariz., scattered nine hits and gave up three runs, all earned, to run her record to 5-5.

Rowley wound up going 4-of-5 with three RBIs, Creech went 3-of-5 and drove in four and Schmidgal had two hits and drove in four runs.

Aggies sweep doubleheader from ENMU

Cameron University played a strong defensive game Saturday evening and was able to get a clutch rally in the bottom of the fifth as the Aggies pulled out a 5-3 victory over Eastern New Mexico in the first game of a twi-night doubleheader at McCord Field.

The Aggies made just enough big plays to get across the runs needed to allow the Aggies to hang on for the win. The Greyhounds had pulled in front, 3-2, in the top of the fifth but Cameron came right back to regain the lead.

After working the bases load and forcing the visitors to bring in 6-5 pitcher Griffin Almond, it was up to CU’s Wyatt Grant to do the damage and he did just that, ripping a base hit up the middle to bring home Gabe Clyden and Carter Bourg to push the Aggies back in front.

Then it was up to Cody Bigford who ripped a double to left-center to bring home Spencer Simpson from second to arrange the final score.

With the rain having moved out of the area, the teams found time to get the second game of the doubleheader finished and once again the Aggies got the big hits when they needed them to pull out a 6-1 victory.

Cameron had two big rallies in the second game, three runs in the first and three more in the fifth. The first-inning rally was started by a Borg double and he came around to score on a Bigford single and an ENMU error. Bigford eventually scored on a balk and Elijah Tolsma got the third run home with a sacrifice fly.

The rally in the first came on a three-run homer by Drew Durst. Grant got on via a single and Hunter Smith doubled to put runners in scoring position and Durst got all three home with his homer.

In Friday’s series opener, Cameron’s baseball managed to stick with Eastern New Mexico and even had its chance to win before falling by a 6-4 score.

The two teams battled back and forth throughout much of the game, going into the top of the eighth tied at 3-3. However, the Greyhounds had a big inning and got three runs across the plate to take a 6-3 lead.

Cameron was unable to score in the eighth but kept the ENMU scoreless in the top of the ninth setting themselves up with a chance for a ninth-inning rally. After starting the inning with two quick outs, Donovan Borg hit a double and Lance Barnett followed with a double of his own that scored Borg.

Spencer Simpson reached on a walk, with Barnett advancing to third on a wild pitch. With runners on the corners, and the winning run at the plate, the Aggies looked poised to pull off the rally. Wyatt Grant stepped to the plate and smashed the ball towards second base, but the ENMU shortstop made a great play to get the force out at second base and stopped CU’s rally attempt.