Eagles facing elimination after up-and-down opening day at RRAC tournament

ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana — A&M-Texarkana opened the RRAC Softball Championship with a thrilling extra-inning victory but ended the first day with a loss at the hands of the nation's top-ranked team, sending the Eagles into a win-or-go home scenario Sunday in Alexandria.

The Eagles (23-21) scored in the top of the eighth and held off Louisiana Christian in the bottom half to take a 4-3 win in the opening game, but despite leading for half of their game against top-ranked Our Lady of the Lake, the Saints exploded for a seven-run sixth inning for a 9-1 run rule victory.

On Sunday, the Eagles will take on A&M-San Antonio in an elimination game at 1:30 pm.

Karmen Searcy, Grace Cantu and Cameron Alardin each had two hits in the win over LCU and each drove in a run. Alardin's RBI single in the eighth scored Neveah Courville for the winning run. Stephanie Chico pitched seven innings and struck out three, but was relieved by Alexis Snyder, who picked up the win. Chico would reenter to earn the save.

Baylee Stautzenberger homered in the first inning against OLLU to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead they would hold until the fourth, when the Saints tied the game. OLLU took the lead in the fifth before hanging seven runs to end the game in the sixth. Snyder took the loss, allowing five earned runs in 5.2 innings.