Photo by Brent Beerends / MT Athletics

The MTSU Blue Raider softball team (10-12) split the first two games today of their weekend series against Texas El-Paso (6-19). The Raiders fell to the Miners in game one by a final score of 7-6, but then turned around and took game two 5-2.

GAME 1:

Game 1 got off to a bad start right from the first pitch for the Blue Raiders. The Miners scratched across a run in the bottom of the first and added three more runs to their total in the second inning, giving them a 4-0 lead. In the fourth, they scored three more runs to take a commanding 7-0 lead.

The Blue Raiders would not walk away without a fight though as they pushed six runs across the plate in the seventh but didn’t have enough in them to come back from seven runs down and took the loss by a final of 7-6.

Cori Jennings picked up the loss in the circle and now sits at 5-7 on the year.

GAME 2:

Game 2 got off to a little bit different and much better start for the Raiders, as they drew first blood by scoring two runs in the top of the second inning.

Much like MTSU in the first game, the Miners were not going down easy as they battled back and put two runs of their own across the board in the fourth thanks to a sacrifice bunt, followed by a two-run single.

The game stayed tied at two until the sixth inning when MTSU put three runs on the board, thanks in large part to Kristin Uselton’s second home run of the season. The Miners made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh by putting runners on the corners before MT forced a fly-out to center field to end the rally and the game, giving themselves a 5-2 victory.

Gretchen Greer struck out five Miner batters and picked up the win in the circle, moving to 4-2 on the year.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Blue Raiders remain in El Paso, Texas where they will play the final game of this 3 game series against the Miners on Sunday at 1 p.m. CT.

Follow MTSU Softball beat writers Cody Strickler (@CodyStricklerSL) and Nick Hardin (@nlhardin2) on Twitter for more coverage.