COMMERCE, Texas (May 12, 2022) – By the time Oklahoma Christian figured out Texas A&M-Kingsville pitcher Carissa De Los Santos on Thursday afternoon, the Eagles found themselves in a five-run hole in the sixth inning.

No. 19-ranked OC made things interesting with a three-run sixth, but De Los Santos and the second-ranked Javelinas hung on for a 7-3 win at Texas A&M-Commerce's Cain Family Field in the opening game of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional.

OC (39-14) dropped into the losers' bracket, in which they will face either TAMUC or St. Mary's (Texas) in an elimination game on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. TAMUK (46-9) – which also beat OC 10-3 last Saturday in the Lone Star Conference tournament semifinals – will play in the winners' bracket final at noon.

OC will need to win two elimination games on Saturday to advance to the championship round. The good news for the Eagles is they did just that in 2018 after losing a first-round regional game to TAMUK on the Javelinas' home field.

"The first thing that I told (the players) is the good thing is, we live to see another day tomorrow," said OC softball coach Shalee Rodriguez, who was an assistant coach during the Eagles' 2018 postseason run. "That's the good thing about double elimination. We have another chance to come out and play our game tomorrow and hopefully compete and keep grinding."

The Eagles' approach against De Los Santos (8-1) was to attack her early in the count, and that backfired somewhat, especially in the third inning, when she recorded three outs on only three pitches. OC didn't record its first hit against her until the fourth inning when Whitney Walde singled to left field.

TAMUK's nine-hole hitter, Jennifer Giesey, slammed a two-run home run over the left-field wall in the third inning – the first of her two homers on the day – to put the Javelinas ahead 2-0 against OC starter Grace Anderson (12-4). In the fourth, Aaliyah Ortiz hit a solo homer off the left-field foul pole to make it 3-0.

Singles by Chloe Woodward and Rian Gamble with one out in the fifth gave OC some hope, but Giesey, TAMUK's second baseman, speared a line drive by Tristyn Hamilton and doubled Gamble off first base to end the inning. The Javelinas took advantage of a key OC error in the bottom of the inning to score two more runs and build their lead to 5-0.

Brooklin Bain opened the sixth with a hard-hit ball to center field that TAMUK's Jory Cervantes dropped. Walde's single up the middle with one out scored Bain and a single by Aaliyah Brown and a walk drawn by Kylie Janzen loaded the bases. With two outs, Woodward singled up the middle to score Walde and pinch-runner Hampton Hays.

"Every time we've played, they've pitched me outside, so I was expecting the outside pitch and I just drove it," Woodward said.

It appeared pinch-hitter Rebeca Fajardo might also deliver a single up the middle, but shortstop Kayla Gonzales fielded Fajardo's slow roller and stepped on the second-base bag for the third out of the inning. Giesey then gave the Javelinas some insurance with her second homer, also the left-field wall off OC reliever Kali Crandall.

"It took us a little bit too long to adjust again, the same as in the conference tournament," Rodriguez said. "Their pitcher did a good job of keeping us off balance and we got ourselves out on a couple of bad pitches. They got a couple of longballs and scored the runs, while we left too many on base."

Hamilton singled to lead off the seventh and moved to second base on a groundout by Bain before TAMUK turned another double play, with Ortiz, the third baseman, catching a line drive from Hannah Pate and firing to second base to retire Hamilton to end the game.

"We had some big swings," TAMUK coach Craig Nicholson said, "and had a couple big plays to get out of innings. The double play to get out of the fifth I thought was a big play and the line-drive double play to end the game as obviously a big play. Defensively, I thought we did a nice job and then we had a combination of some really good at-bats and some really bad ones mixed in there too, but we strung enough good ones together and once again, the bottom of our order was outstanding."

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