Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru/@lukezayas_photography
MARSHALL, Texas — It didn’t take much for UMHB Softball to go from being in the thick of a one-run tournament game to eyeing a significantly more daunting four-run deficit. All it took, in fact, was one swing with two outs in the sixth inning on Thursday afternoon.
With The Cru facing Hardin-Simmons in an ASC Tournament opening-round matchup, HSU’s Lindsey Ratcliffe pulled a 1-0 pitch from UMHB’s Eileigh Whyte to deep left field. The ball traveled over the head of Shorey Nguyen and just beyond the outfield wall at Taylor Field, giving HSU a momentum-grabbing 3-run home run that took the Cowgirls’ lead to 5-1.
That was the deciding point in a contest that unfolded far closer than the eventual 5-2 final score. The Crusaders did their best to rally in the seventh, but scored only once on Ryleigh Mills’ two-out RBI single, falling in their ASC Tournament opener.
Even in the loss, UMHB’s tournament run remains alive. The Cru will face LeTourneau in an elimination game at 1 p.m. on Friday, with the winner advancing to a 6 p.m. matchup later in the day. HSU moves on to play ETBU at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.
The first five innings were the definition of a pitcher’s duel in nearly every way, as Whyte and HSU starter Gabby Montanez combined to put nine “zeros” on the scoreboard between the second and sixth innings. Aside from Bailey Frenzel’s solo homer and a sac fly off the bat of HSU’s Emily Jacobs—both of which came in the first inning—scoring was nonexistent until the bottom half of the sixth. Between the second and fifth, each lineup recorded just two hits apiece, keeping the score knotted at 1-1.
Considering the regular season series between The Cru and the Cowgirls in early April featured two one-run games, it came as no surprise to see a similar pattern unfolding on Thursday. Then it deviated from that path, as a few crucial plays stacked upon each other in what became a four-run outburst.
A Kristen McMillan double on the first pitch of the inning was the first major turn in HSU’s favor, immediately putting a runner in scoring position. After a sacrifice bunt moved McMillan to third, Jacobs lined a hard-hit grounder towards third base that was slowed, but not stopped, by third baseman Bralyn Belk. The ball got past Belk and was fielded by shortstop Lindsey Polleschultz, who recognized the option to throw out Jacobs at first had already passed. So Polleschultz instead fired to Belk at third, looking to catch McMillan off the base, as she initially made a move to sprint home before reversing course and diving back towards the bag.
In a bang-bang play that saw Belk apply the tag just as McMillan’s extended hands touched the base, the third-base umpire ruled McMillan safe, setting up Ella Salinas’ go-ahead RBI single three pitches later. Whyte tallied her second strikeout of what became a 5.2-inning start in the very next at-bat, though it was followed by Ratcliffe’s three-run homer; the final pivotal play of the game’s most impactful inning.
UMHB’s seventh-inning rally proved to be The Cru’s best scoring opportunity of the day. Tori Skinner took a pitch off her front foot to lead off the inning and put a runner on first, though HSU recorded back-to-back outs with Bryton Wright and Taylor Henken at the plate. But Kyler Sanders, pinch-hitting for Madeline Stephenson, drove a pitch to left field, moving Skinner up to second on the base hit.
The pinch-hitting success with two outs continued with Ryleigh Mills at the plate, as she made the most of her lone at-bat, lining a pitch deep into the left-center field gap. It scored Skinner from second rather easily, and put runners on the corners, forcing HSU head coach Casey Wilson to make a pitching change in the midst of the scoring threat. Reliever Akaysia Grogan did her job in the circle, however, getting HSU’s final out on a popup to third by Jordan Iverson that was caught in foul territory.
Notes from Taylor Field
- Bailey Frenzel’s first-inning home run was her 7th of the season, tying the senior with Taylor Holman (2023) for the most single-season homers by a Crusader in the last five years.
- Frenzel is hitting .361 which ranks third on the team and is the only Crusader with a slugging percentage above .600 (.611).
- Lindsey Polleschultz went 2-for-3 at the top of the order in her 16th multi-hit game of 2025. 13 of those have been two-hit games, two of which have come in the last five days.
- The senior has recorded seven multi-hit games since April 7, and is now hitting .390 on the season (a team-high).
- With her hit-by-pitch in the 7th, Tori Skinner has reached base in six consecutive games, the longest streak on the team. She has also scored at least one run in 7 of UMHB’s last 8 games.
- While UMHB’s second game of the ASC Tournament will be an elimination game for the third season in a row, The Cru has a track record of playing well in win-or-go-home scenarios:
- In 2023, UMHB advanced to the ASC Tournament final after dropping their opener to McMurry, as the Crusaders beat UT-Dallas, LeTourneau, and McMurry to advance through the elimination bracket and into the championship game.
- In 2021, a similar sequence unfolded, with The Cru falling to ETBU in their first game before beating Belhaven and Hardin-Simmons, which earned UMHB a spot in the tournament final.
- In 2019, UMHB beat Hardin-Simmons, 11-2, in an elimination game to stay alive and play in the following day’s ASC title game. That tournament, coincidentally, was also held on ETBU’s campus in Marshall.
Up Next
UMHB’s elimination matchup against LeTourneau will be the third meeting between the two programs in the last six days. LETU swept a doubleheader with The Cru in Longview, winning by scores of 6-5 and 10-2 on May 3, though UMHB beat the Yellowjackets twice when the two played in Belton in late March.
LETU took down Howard Payne on Thursday morning, 8-0, and held a 5-2 lead through four innings against ETBU in an evening matchup before the Tigers stormed back in a seven-run fifth to eventually win, 10-5.
Watch Friday’s 1 p.m. game live at goetbutigers.com, and follow @TrueToTheCru on X/Twitter and Facebook for updates.
