LUBBOCK, Texas (February 25, 2023) – No.9 Lubbock Christian University head coach
Daren Hays celebrated his 500
th softball coaching victory in walk-off fashion Saturday night in the opening game of a Lone Star Conference series against Texas Woman's at Maner Park. After being held to one hit over seven innings, LCU led off the eighth inning with hits from
Tiarra Delrosario and
Skylar Herrera to claim a 1-0 conference win.
GAME INFORMATION
Score: LCU 1, TWU 0
Records: LCU (14-4, 4-3), TWU (9-4, 5-2)
Location: Lubbock, Texas (Maner Park)
Time of Game: 1:45
Weather: 53-Cloudy, Wind-7MPH to LF
LCU Highlights:
Turning Point:
Leading off the bottom of the eighth inning,
Tiarra Delrosario muscled an opposite field bloop to shallow left field which resulted in a triple and it setup the game-winning run.
How it Happened:
Starting pitchers Alyssa LeBlanc (TWU) and
Taylor Franco (LCU) were in a true pitcher's duel. LeBlanc had a no-hitter broken up by LCU's
Riley Flores, who led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a double. Franco had a no-hitter last 6.1 innings.
LCU had one hit through seven innings and had Delrosario leadoff the bottom of the eighth inning with a blooper that had so much spin on it, that the spin created a lateral bounce into foul territory, which allowed Delrosario to head into third base with a leadoff triple.
Skylar Herrera crushed LeBlanc's 141
st pitch of the game to the left field wall and Delrosario scored to end the game.
Inside the Numbers:
- Taylor Franco improved to 5-3 on the season, while registering her 61st career win (60-27). In the process, she claimed her seventh complete game (57th of her career) and fourth shutout of the season (26th of her career). Franco has six complete games this season that involve holding the opposition to three hits or less.
- Alyssa LeBlanc (5-3) held LCU to three hits and struck out 17 LCU batters, which is an LCU program record for strikeouts by an opposing pitcher. The prior mark was 15, which has been completed twice against LCU in program history.
- LCU improved to 9-0 this season when errorless.
- Head coach Daren Hays, in his 13th season at the helm of the Lady Chaps, improved to 500-161 in his softball coaching career (all at LCU). Hays also owns a 356-163 coaching record from coaching LCU baseball for eight seasons.
- The last time LCU won a 1-0 contest was on Apr. 28, 2016 in San Antonio, Texas at the Heartland Conference Tournament in a game LCU defeated Oklahoma Christian.
- LCU goes to 1-0 this season in extra-inning results and they are 1-1 in one-run games.
HISTORICAL NOTE
LCU moved to 7-2 all-time against Texas Woman's and 2-0 all-time against the Pioneers at Maner Park.
WHAT'S NEXT:
The Lady Chaps and Pioneers will complete their three-game LSC series Sunday at noon at Maner Park with the start time moved to noon and 2 p.m. for the doubleheader due to high hinds later in the day.
