Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru
BELTON — There are plenty of situations when “home-field advantage” can be labeled as overrated. But not in the case of UMHB Softball.
Winning at Dee Dillon Field has been near impossible for visiting opponents this season, as The Cru has taken the mentality of defending its home turf to another level, going 17-2 in Belton. It is the program’s most regular season wins at home since 2021, and the best home win percentage (.895) since a 2011 campaign that saw the Crusaders go 18-2.
“We always play better when we’re at home,” UMHB head coach Melissa Mojica observed earlier this week. “I’m not sure exactly why that is, but I feel like we always have a chance [in home games].”
The Cru displayed that prominently over the last three weeks in a momentum-building eight-game homestand, highlighted by last Saturday’s victory over No. 1-ranked ETBU in a 5-4 thriller. With the win, UMHB became just the third team this season to beat the defending national champs, and surged upwards in the NCAA Power Index (NPI) rankings as a result. The weekend prior, the Crusaders swept Howard Payne in four games, outscoring the Yellow Jackets, 29-3.
There is little doubt that the extended stretch of home contests played into UMHB’s favor, with The Cru rebounding nicely from a difficult 3-1 series loss at Hardin-Simmons on the second weekend of April, going 6-2 since.
“We change a couple things in practice, and hold them a little more accountable on some things,” Mojica said, when asked about the recent streak. “But it’s also getting in, getting our reps, and getting out and trying to recover to have plenty of rest time for their bodies. We want them to stay focused, rather than long, drawn-out practices.”
This week represents a shift for The Cru. They knew it heading into last weekend’s doubleheader against ETBU. The home games are no longer, and while the 17-2 home record is both impressive and impactful, UMHB’s most crucial games of 2025 will not come at Dee Dillon Field. Instead, the Crusaders are taking to the road, closing the regular season in a doubleheader at LeTourneau on Saturday, followed by the ASC Tournament in either Marshall (ETBU) or Abilene (Hardin-Simmons).
For a team with a 6-9 mark in true road games, the prospect of two straight weekends away from Belton could be concerning. Even more so when it is understood that the results over that stretch will decide whether The Cru earns a bid to an NCAA Regional or sees the 2025 campaign draw to a conclusion. But the recent track record indicates otherwise; that UMHB is playing some of its best softball of the spring at the perfect time, having overcome some of the struggles that plagued them a month ago.
“We have got to bring the energy and the intensity we had Saturday at home,” Mojica said of her expectations entering the final weekend of the regular season. “That has to follow us to Longview this weekend. We can’t go out there and think, ‘We already beat them twice, we’re going to win.’ That’s not how it’s going to be. Two weeks ago, LeTourneau played ETBU and all four games were close, and they went to extra innings. LeTourneau is playing better, and they have nine seniors as well. So again, you’re playing for something. The last thing they’re going to do is roll over and let us have two games. So staying motivated and keeping that intensity is big for us.”
UMHB took both games of a doubleheader against the Yellowjackets in Belton on the final weekend of March, but LETU made accomplishing that difficult. The Cru held off a three-run Yellowjacket rally in the seventh inning of Game 2, before winning 7-6 on Jordan Iverson’s walk-off sac fly in the bottom of that same inning. As Mojica pointed out, before UMHB handed ETBU’s its first loss of ASC play, LETU pushed the top-ranked Tigers to the brink, nearly taking a win of their own. In both games of a twinbill played in Longview on April 15, ETBU emerged with one-run victories, including a 1-0 result decided in the eighth inning.
An average spectator might overlook a LETU squad that is 4-10 in conference action and 1-9 in its last 10. But UMHB has no intention of thinking in that way. Certain things, such as their ASC Tournament seed, are already set in stone. But then there are others, like their chances of an NCAA Tournament berth, that remain very much up for grabs. Two wins over LeTourneau would go a long way to keeping those odds at a favorable percentage.
Part of that approach is unquestionably the maturity of the roster. Six of the eight Crusaders who average at least two plate appearances per game are in their final college season, and that doesn’t even count Eileigh Whyte and Chloee Miller, UMHB’s primary starting pitchers, both of whom are seniors.
“This is it,” Mojica noted. “They’re coming down to their final days playing college ball. Their want-to and their drive is the highest it’s been all season when it’s crunch time. It helps that we have a lot of leadership, and a lot of positive attitudes that stay encouraged at all times. If one kid is down, there are lots of people there to pick them up. It’s been a great year as far as our team chemistry and being positive overall.”
It is a team that feeds off each other’s successes, and stays relentless when pivotal points approach. And that produces the memorable plays that have contributed so often to UMHB’s 24-12 record by this point.
Take the final play of last Saturday’s win over ETBU for example. With two outs and ETBU’s Izabella Morales on first, UMHB held a narrow 5-4 lead. Morales, with 19 stolen bases to her credit this spring, took off for second base as Whyte released the pitch to power hitter Tauryn Cummings. But senior catcher Tori Skinner acted quickly, firing a perfect throw to shortstop Lindsey Polleschultz, a fellow senior. Polleschultz applied the tag and got the final out, lifting The Cru to a monumental win over the reigning national champions.
“That was a game-changing out,” Mojica said later. “It was a big out for Tori. When we went to ETBU [earlier in the season], Tori struggled a little bit with not being sharp. So she had worked hard all week to make sure nobody was going to steal and give [ETBU] any kind of advantage. Tauryn Cummings is a kid who can end a ballgame with one swing of the bat, so getting that out, and not giving her another at-bat, was huge.”
The defense was impressive for UMHB through all seven innings, with a number of key outs on hard-hit flyballs to the outfield. 16 of the 18 outs recorded with the ball in play came on flyballs, as Shorey Nguyen, Taylor Henken, and Gabriela Vela took away a handful of potential extra-base hits, patrolling the outfield grass with speed and smart reads. Taking care of that aspect allowed UMHB to hold ETBU’s lineup—which averages 7.2 runs per game—at bay, giving The Cru opportunities of their own at the plate.
“We did a good job with adjusting to each at-bat,” Mojica said. “When you go through the lineup a couple times, you notice that every kid is making adjustments, trying to hit the ball where it’s pitched, and do their job. When there’s a runner [on second], we need a ball to right field. We get a runner at one, we have to move her to second. “One base at a time” is what we were focusing on to try to push a couple runs across. We also played exceptional defense the first game. The outfield was phenomenal; no balls dropped, hardly no big hits, because the outfielders took that away. That allows our offense more time to have more at-bats, more looks, and figure out how to win.”
Remaining consistent in those aspects has gotten UMHB to this point on the final weekend of the regular season. The Cru currently sits 11th in the at-large bid picture for the NCAA postseason, and is very much in the hunt for the ASC Tournament title at the same time. For the most part, they control their own destiny at this stage of the spring. But maintaining that status must include a quality performance in Longview on Saturday.
“Like I said, we just have to win two games this weekend,” Mojica said. “Then we have to go to the conference tournament and get some Ws there, too.”
UMHB’s doubleheader at LeTourneau is set for 1 p.m. CT. The Cru is seeking its seventh-consecutive regular season win over the Yellowjackets and third-straight in Longview. Tune in to watch at letuathletics.com.
