Cowgirls split with Colorado Christian on day one

Lakewood, CO ---- The New Mexico Highlands softball team traveled to Lakewood, CO on short notice and walked away with a split on day one with Colorado Christian after taking game two against the Cougars 11-9 in extra innings.
 
The Cowgirls (8-30, 8-30 RMAC_ scored an early run in the top of the first inning as Taylor Fish (Fr; Wildomar, CA) scored Camrynn Ziegler (Jr; El Paso, TX) from second base with a hard hit ball back up the middle.
 
The Cougars (24-11, 24-7 RMAC) quickly tied the game at one in the bottom of the first before exploding for five runs in the bottom of the third inning. The Cougars held the Cowgirls to one hit in the remainder of the game to take game one 9-1.
 
The Cowgirls third hit came from second baseman Brooke De La Garza (Fr; Silver City, NM) in the top of the fourth inning, which was a double to left-center field.
 
The Cowgirls this season are notorious for playing well on the second half of the double-header, and they didn't fail to do so today.
 
The Cowgirls again jumped out on the Cougars with an early 2-1 advantage in the second inning in game two as Tamia Yellowman (Fr; Phoenix, AZ) singled up the middle to score Savannah Pineda-Chavez (Fr; Montebello, CA) who walked and De La Garza who singled to left field.
 
 Senior Brooklynn DeLozier (Sr; Longmont, CO) started the top of the third inning with a lead-off single and Megan Gutierrez (Fr; Whitier, CA) followed with a bunt to put runners on first and second. De la Garza then stepped in to record her second hit of the game to score DeLozier and put runners on the corners.
 
A pitching change from the Cougars didn't seem to effect the Cowgirls as Pineda-Chavez singled down the right-field line to score Gutierrez and De la Garza and give the Cowgirls a 5-1 advantage.
 
The Cougars responded with two runs on the bottom of the third, and took advantage of a fielding error by Yellowman at shortstop to score four more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take their first lead of the game at 7-5.
 
Gutierrez started the top of the fifth inning with a lead-off homerun to bring the Cowgirls within one run before Chavez later tied the game at seven with a sacrifice fly.
 
Yellowman bounced back from her fielding error in the previous inning to score the go-ahead run with another single up the middle to give the Cowgirls an 8-7 lead before Ziegler gave the Cowgirls a two run advantage with a hard hit ball to first base.
 
Back-to-back hits and a sacrifice fly from the Cougars brought them within one after the bottom of the fifth inning before the Cougars later tied the game at 9 in the bottom of the seventh inning.
 
Carlee Gonzalez (Fr; Rocklin, CA) was hit by a pitch before the Cowgirls then used three straight hits from Fish, De La Garza, and Chavez to score two runs in the top of the eighth inning as the Cowgirls retired the bottom half of the inning in three-up three-down fashion to take game two, 11-9.
 
The Cowgirls finished with 15 hits on the game as Brooke De La Garza led the way with three hits and two RBI's while DeLozier, Gutierrez, Chavez, and Yellowman all tallied two hits apiece. Nathalie Blattmann (So; Abbottsville, Canada) pitched a complete game for the Cowgirls and now moves to 6-14 on the season after giving up nine runs off eight hits and two strikeouts.
 
The Cowgirls and Cougars will finish off the four-game series with a double-header slated for 10 am tomorrow morning.
 
GO COWGIRLS!!