Photo of Kylie Green, who went 3-for-4 in Saturday’s series finale, by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru/LukeZayasMedia
BELTON—In the final home game of the 2024 regular season, UMHB Softball (22-12 overall) maintained its winning ways, extending its streak to 11 straight victories as The Cru sealed a sweep of Sul Ross State (14-21 overall) on Saturday afternoon.
It marked the third-straight sweep for the Crusaders, who are sitting in second place in the American Southwest Conference heading into a pivotal final regular season series at Concordia next weekend. And as the win streak suggests, UMHB is becoming a more dangerous opponent as the weeks progress, building momentum with the postseason closer than ever.
“It’s the consistency throughout our lineup,” UMHB head coach Melissa Mojica said postgame. “When you win games, you just get rolling, and it makes things easy for anybody that is on the field.”
UMHB tallied 14 hits in the win, continuing a trend of hot hitting seen throughout the three victories over the Lobos. The Cru had 11 hits in each of Friday’s wins, taking down SRSU by scores of 11-3 and 7-5, as the Lobo pitching staff struggled to keep UMHB at bay.
In each of the three games, the Crusaders tallied a home run, two of which came off the bat of Bailey Frenzel, not to mention the four doubles and two triples recorded in the series. The extra-base hitting certainly provided for plenty of big-impact plays, but the ability to string together base hits and move the runners also factored into the Crusaders’ streak lengthening to double digits.
In Saturday’s five-run win alone, UMHB had five instances of back-to-back hits, with the first such occurrence coming just three at-bats into the first inning. Taylor Henken singled to center field with one out, and Frenzel followed by sending a pitch from SRSU starter Loren Loveless over the wall in right center field, giving The Cru a 2-0 lead. It was Frenzel’s fifth homer of the year, as she went 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs in the series finale.
“She has kind of hit her rhythm now,” Mojica said of Frenzel, who is in her first year in Belton after transferring in from Angelina College. “I know I talked early in the season like ,’She’s good, and I promise there’s more to it.’ She’s really starting to step it up and that’s exactly what we want at the end of the season. Especially going against Concordia, who’s been playing great.”
Indeed, the biggest series in the ASC next weekend will be the three-game set between The Cru and the Tornadoes in Austin, as UMHB is in a fight with Hardin-Simmons for the No. 2 seed in the ASC Tournament. HSU’s series win over McMurry this weekend tied the two for second place in the league standings, as both sit at 13-8. Concordia is 9-9 in the league, with series against Howard Payne and UMHB coming up in the final week of the season. The Cru will face the Tornadoes just two days after Concordia plays a full series in Brownwood on Tuesday and Wednesday, which could factor into the weekend’s result as well and give UMHB a slight advantage on the road.
“There’s a lot of stuff that’s up in the air about what’s going to happen,” Mojica said, looking towards the final week of the regular season as the ASC Tournament picture comes into focus. “Either way, we’re playing well and I’m excited to go into our last series and the conference tournament.”
Fittingly, in the final regular season home series of 2024, UMHB’s seniors stepped up, making the most of their final games at Dee Dillon Field. Kylie Green went 6-for-8 at the plate, swatting a home run in Game 2, along with two RBIs and four runs scored. Allyse Castillo scored two runs in the series opener. Bailey Eggleston tallied four RBIs in Friday’s doubleheader. Kaitlin Powers went 2-for-3 at the plate in her second start of the series on Saturday. And in Game 3, Elisabeth Paul came through with a sixth-inning RBI single into shallow right center field for her first hit since May 6, 2022.
Paul’s base hit on senior day was especially notable. After two solid seasons in Belton, in which she saw action in 72 games, starting 58 of them, and hit for an average of .290 or above in both seasons, a career-ending injury brought her collegiate career to a halt. The passing of her father, Robert, in the fall of 2023, added to what was an emotional year.
But through it all, her commitment and loyalty to the UMHB program has remained. Despite being sidelined for the last two seasons, her leadership and encouragement in the dugout is worth recognition. That made it an even more memorable moment, as the excitement from the Crusader dugout was evident when Paul reached first base. For Mojica, who has known Paul since her days playing at Baylor, it was a proud coaching moment, considering the challenges Paul has faced over the last two years.
“When I was playing softball at Baylor, I worked at a daycare in Waco and she was at that daycare,” Mojica said when asked about Paul. “I remember her when she was a two year-old, and she’s also from the same community I’m from, so there’s that connection there.
“I’m so proud of her. It’s been a hard year. She didn’t ask to hit. She didn’t even ask to put her uniform on. We were like, ‘No, you’re going to put a uniform on, you’re going to get an at-bat.’ It was amazing [to see her hit]. Even in her first at-bat, when she struck out, it was a great at-bat. She fouled balls off, swung at good pitches. And she hadn’t seen live pitching in two years. She’s a great athlete.”
Paul is part of a senior class that won 116 games during their time in Belton, including last year’s ASC regular season title. The Cru won 30+ games in consecutive seasons in 2022 and 2023, and reached the NCAA Tournament regional finals last season. This is a remarkable group that contributed to continuing to build UMHB Softball’s winning tradition and standard of excellence, both on and off the field, and we thank them for their commitment to the program.
Game Notes
- With Taylor Henken’s stolen base in the sixth inning on Saturday, she now has 22 stolen bases on the season, tying Lexi Harris (2023) and Linsey Tomlinson (2018) for the UMHB record for single-season stolen bases.
- For the first time this season, UMHB tallied 10+ hits in all three games of a series.
- 14 hits is the second-highest hit total recorded by the Crusader lineup this season.
- The Cru had 22 RBIs in this weekend’s series, with at least six in all three victories. This season, UMHB is 14-1 when they tally at least six RBIs in a game.
- Eileigh Whyte improved to 15-5 in the circle with 6.0 innings pitched, four hits, and one earned run on Saturday. The junior left-hander is now just one win away from being tied for fourth in program history for wins in a season.
- UMHB went 13-1 at home during the 2024 regular season.
Up Next
The Concordia series begins with a Friday doubleheader at 3 p.m. in Austin, followed by the series finale at noon on Saturday. The ASC Tournament is set for May 9-11 in Marshall, Texas.
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