Saints Split Games and Advance to NAIA Opening Round Championship

SAN ANTONIO (May 17, 2023) – The NAIA No. 2-ranked Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) softball team lost to Hope International University (HIU) 1-0 and beat Taylor University 10-3 on Tuesday and early Wednesday in the NAIA Opening Round. The Saints move on to the championship game tomorrow against HIU, in which they will need to win both games to claim the San Antonio Bracket and advance to the NAIA World Series. The Saints are the No. 1 seed in the bracket, followed by HIU at No. 2, Campbellsville University (CU) at No. 3 and Taylor University (TU) at No. 4.

vs. HIU

Pitching dominated the Royals and Saints game to start play on Tuesday. Cassandra Valdez pitched a complete game for the Saints with four strikeouts and one earned run to suffer the loss. The Royals lone run came in the fourth inning on an RBI single. Both teams totaled three hits each in the pitching battle. Royals' pitcher Allie Puente entered the game with a 0.53 ERA and she struck out five Saints in the win. Rebecca Duran, Madison Nunn and Kaili Luna tallied the hits for OLLU. HIU prevailed 1-0 to advance to the championship game tomorrow.

vs. TU

The Saints rebounded after the loss to defeat TU 10-3. Valdez tripled to score Duran in the first inning, and she later scored on a wild pitch. The Saints added six more runs over the next two innings to lead 8-0. The Trojans strung together three runs, but it wasn't enough to challenge the Saints. OLLU finished with nine hits and Madison Garza totaled four RBIs. Valdez started in the circle and earned the win with six strikeouts. Angela Ramirez pitched 3.1 innings in relief and allowed one earned run.

Up next

The Saints face HIU in the championship game tomorrow at 1 p.m. at St. Mary's University Softball Stadium.