DENVER (TAMUK) – Freshman Saidi Castillo (Kingsville, Texas) threw a three-hitter with 11 strikeouts and seniors Roxy Chapa (McAllen, Texas) and Victoria Schoonard-Saborio (Elk Grove, Texas) hit home runs as the Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team dropped the Young Harris Mountain Lions, 3-1, on Friday afternoon in TAMUK’s second game at the College World Series at the Regency Athletic Complex in Denver.
The Javelinas (50-8) will remain in the winner’s bracket and will play again on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT. Their opponent is TBD. This victory is the 17th-in-a-row for TAMUK, which ties a program record set in 2005.
Castillo (26-4) started the game in a duel with Young Harris’s Nikkie Kovalsky, the hurlers matching zeroes for the first four frames. Castillo only allowed one baserunner to that point while setting down eight on strikes, including a second inning in which she struck out the side. The Javelinas put runners on in each of inning, but Kovalsky wiggled out of each jam.
The fifth inning is when TAMUK’s power stroke put them in front. With one out, Schoonard-Saborio hit a towering blast over the center field fence for her second dinger in as many games. Two batters later, it was Chapa who went deep and gone to left for a 2-0 lead.
Castillo held that lead until her team’s lineup tacked on one more in the seventh, an inning that began with a walk to sophomore Loren Kelly (Rockport, Texas). A wild pitch and a passed ball allowed Kelly to move to third and Chapa picked up another RBI with a sacrifice fly that tallied Kelly for TAMUK’s third run.
Young Harris was finally able to dent home plate in their half of the seventh with a Haylie Shope one-out solo homer, but Castillo retired Jill Torres on a fly ball to center and struck out Michalyn Bingham, closing out her team’s 50th win of 2019.
To keep up with everything related to Javelina softball during the postseason, follow @TAMUKSB and @JavelinaSports on Twitter, @JavelinaSports on Instagram, like Javelina Sports on Facebook and visit Javelinaathletics.com.
