Davis Walk-off in Opener Fuels AC Wins
Angelina College’s Taylor Davis rarely swings at a first pitch. She’s accumulated an on-base-percentage of more than .500 just by being so selective, despite setting the program record for home runs with 17 in 2017.
But she saw something she liked from Navarro reliever Danielle Salas. With AC trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Davis greeted the first pitch she saw with a big swing, driving the ball over the wall to lift the Lady ‘Runners to a 6-5, walk-off win Friday at Roadrunner Complex in Lufkin.
AC made it a Good Friday sweep with another nail-biter, holding off the Lady Bulldogs – who entered Friday’s games on a five-game winning streak – by a 5-4 score behind a two-run homer from Kali Holcomb and some clutch pitching from Jordan Kisselburg, who earned the win while going the distance in the circle.
In the opener, AC reliever Kylie Murdock entered the game in the next third inning and limited the Lady Bulldogs over the final four innings. The Lady Roadrunners attacked the two-run, 5-3 deficit by getting a leadoff single from Miranda Wiggins. Lauren Garza ripped a line drive to the outfield that ended up misplayed for an error. After the pitching change, Davis – who hadn’t swung at a first pitch in nearly 20 at-bats – connected and drove the ball over the left-field
wall to set off the celebration.
Holcomb’s two-run shot came in the first inning and got AC off to a hot start. Garza and Davis added RBI, and Wiggins scored on a wild pitch, to push the Lady ‘Runner lead to 5-1 in the fourth.
The Lady Bulldogs tightened things up with a run in the fifth and another in the sixth. In the top of the seventh, Navarro scratched out another run on Kaitlin Gorden’s infield single to cut the AC lead to 5-4. But Kisselburg then bore down and retired the next two hitters to complete the sweep.
Following the game, the Lady Roadrunner honored players on Sophomore Night. Playing in their final regular-season home games were sophomores Kylie Murdock, Halie Pritchett, Lauren Garza, Jordan Kisselburg, Miranda Wiggins, Whitney Howerton, Lynsey Mitchell, Kaylee Parker, Kali Holcomb, Taylor Davis, Taylor LaGrange and Shay Vegas.
The e-mail address for AC’s Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu.
