EL PASO, Texas – Santa Clara won a pair of games on Saturday at the Dr. Diana Natalicio Memorial Tournament, defeating New Mexico 7-2 in the morning and downing tournament host, UTEP, 12-3 in the late afternoon.
GAME 1: Santa Clara 7 - New Mexico 2
Behind Sage Hager's stellar performance in the circle and contributions up and down the lineup, Santa Clara came up with a 7-2 victory over New Mexico.
Hager (1-1) held the New Mexico lineup without a hit through the first 4 1/3 innings and finished with a four-hit complete game. The right-hander allowed two runs, one earned, and a pair of walks to pick up her first win of the season.
Santa Clara (2-5) opened the scoring in the third on back-to-back RBI doubles by Hazyl Gray and Ashley Trierweiler who batted ninth and atop the lineup. The hits came off Lobos starter Emmalyn Brinka.
The Broncos added a run in the third on a sacrifice fly by Emma Bickford to extend the lead to 3-0.
Keyannah Chavez came up with the first hit for the Lobos (3-4) in the fifth and later came home on pinch hitter Olivia Birkinshaw's grounder to cut the Broncos lead to 3-1.
Santa Clara answered with a four-run sixth to put the game out of reach. The Broncos only had two hits in the frame including an RBI double by Morgan Salmon, as SCU took advantage of a couple of walks, a hit batsmen and a Lobo error.
Six Broncos had an RBI with the bottom three players in the lineup scoring five of the seven runs.
Brinka fell to 1-1 on the year after giving up three runs, two earned, on five hits over 3 2/3 innings.
GAME 2: Santa Clara 12 - UTEP 3
Ashley Trierweiler drove in six runs including a grand slam to lead a 14-hit attack by Santa Clara in the Broncos 12-3 win over UTEP.
Along with her six RBIs, Trierweiler went 4-for-4 with a walk, scored four times as she was a triple shy from hitting for a cycle. Allyson Ferreira and Morgan Salmon had three hits each while Sammy Needham went 2-for-3.
With the game knotted at 2-all in the second inning, Trierweiler sent the 1-1 offering by Aalijah Alarcon over the right-center fence to give the Broncos a 6-2 lead.
Heading into the second, Santa Clara (3-5) trailed 2-1. Emma Bickford led off with a single, followed by a Morgan Salmon double off UTEP starter Mackenzee Collins. Freshman Robynn Balmediano delivered her first career hit to score Bickford to tie the game up prompting a pitching change to Alarcon.
Hazyl Gray drew a walk to load the bases to set the stage for Trierweiler's first career grand slam.
Backed by an offensive outburst by the Broncos lineup, Gray (2-1) was solid in the circle to pick up her second win in as many days. The Bronco lefty threw six innings and gave up four hits, three runs and walked four.
NEXT UP
Santa Clara plays Texas Tech on the final day of the Dr. Diana Natalicio Memorial Tournament on Sunday at 8 a.m. pacific.
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