ABILENE, Texas – Cristina Ayala, Megan Hooper and Anissa Garcia all picked up three hits each on the day, but the Concordia Texas softball team fell in both games of the doubleheader with McMurry on Friday at Edwards Field in Abilene, Texas.
 
Bailey Tisdale turned in a dominant performance in the circle in game one, allowing just one run on two hits and striking out eight in a complete game of work.
 
The first game was a pitcher's duel that only saw a combined seven hits and remained scoreless after seven innings of play, heading into extra innings locked in a scoreless tie.
 
The Tornados came to the plate with a chance to pull ahead in the top of the eighth inning, but were retired in order to keep the game at 0-0 heading into the bottom half of the first extra frame.
 
McMurry provided the late-game heroics, executing a sacrifice squeeze to earn the walk-off victory, and CTX dropped game one 1-0.
 
In game two, the Tornados put a run on the board first, but the War Hawks jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the first that CTX couldn't come all the way back from, ultimately falling 5-3.
 
Ayala and Hooper started game two with back-to-back singles, and an RBI hit from Ashley Hallmark brought Hooper across to give CTX a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the first inning.
 
McMurry answered with an explosive first inning, plating four runs on four hits and one CTX error. After one inning, the Tornados trailed 4-1.
 
In the bottom of the third, a sacrifice fly tacked on another run to McMurry's lead, bringing the score to 5-1.
 
The Tornados began to chip away at the lead in the fifth inning, a leadoff single and stolen base from Ayala seting up an RBI base knock from Erica Riley, and CTX minimized the deficit and made it a 5-2 game.
 
In the following inning, Hailee Tinajero led off with a single to right field and advanced to third on a base hit from Hallmark and a fly out from Emily Schmuck, leading to an RBI sacrifice fly off the bat of Garcia. The Tornados shrunk the McMurry lead to 5-3 heading into the final frame.
 
Concordia Texas came to the plate in the seventh inning with one last chance for heroics, but were unable to push a run across despite a pair of base hits from Hooper and Riley. The Tornados fell 5-3 in the second game of the day.
 
Heather Casiano tossed three scoreless innings in relief for CTX, allowing only two hits and recording one punch out.
 
The Tornados will look to salvage the series in the final game on Saturday, playing at noon at Edwards Field in Abilene, Texas.