CAYNON, Texas — Finding their offense in a big way and getting two stellar performances in the circle, the Newman softball team ran away with a pair of victories over Lincoln on Day 2 of the Lady Buff Invite at West Texas A&M Saturday afternoon.
The Jets (4-6) pounded out 18 runs and 26 hits to earn victories of 6-0 and 12-1 over the Blue Tigers (0-9), as Taylor Mannis and Mikayla Medbery each went 5-for-7 and Kate Smith earned her first victory of the year by tossing a complete-game one-hitter.
Kendra Mendoza and Jensen Cromer each singled to help the Jets get on the board in the second inning of the opener. Missy Swanson reached on a fielder's choice, and Delaney Hiegert reached on an error that wound up allowing both Cromer and Swanson to score to hand Newman the only lead it would need in the game with Smith dealing.
After being set down in the first, Mannis and Medbery opened up the third with back-to-back doubles, and a squeeze bunt by Courtney Sartin scored Medbery to open the lead up to 4-0. Lincoln got two of its three baserunners of the game on in the fourth on a hit and a walk, but two straight groundouts to Hiegert ended the threat.
The Jets would tag on insurance runs in the sixth and the seventh, as Cromer scored on a Swanson single after tripling with one out in the sixth, and Medbery did the same after her second double of the day was followed by a double from Sartin.
Smith picked up her first win after coming close by allowing no fewer than two earned runs in her first four outings of the season, and lowered her team-leading ERA to 1.27.
Newman wasted no time in getting started in the second game, sending 11 batters to the plate and knocking out six runs on seven hits in the bottom of the first. Mannis had two hits in the frame, and Katie Ingles started the scoring with a two-RBI single with one out. Swanson and Bayley Horsch added two-out singles to plate runs, and Swanson stole home as well to add to the tally.
If that wasn't enough, after allowing the only run of the day to the Blue Tigers in the top of the second, the Jets responded by pushing three more across in the bottom half, as Sartin scored on an error and Swanson cracked a two-run single to right.
The total reached double digits with four straight singles to start the third inning, with Ingles knocking in Mannis, and Medbery tacked on a two-run single in the fourth to stretch the lead to 12-1 before the run rule ended the game in the fifth. The 12 runs by the Jets is the most since scoring 13 in the second game of a doubleheader against Rogers State on April 11, 2014, and the 16 hits Newman put up was the most since smacking 18 against Oklahoma Panhandle State on April 13, 2013.
Cromer worked around seven hits, allowing just the lone run to pick up her first win of the season with five innings of work.
The Jets close out the Lady Buff Invite with two games against the hosts, No. 22 West Texas A&M Sunday at 1 p.m.
