Lady Rams trounce Eunice

When the weather is cold, Lady Rams pitcher Sasha Parker said she keeps her jacket on and tries to continuously move her right arm inbetween innings to keep it warm.

Whatever she was doing, it worked.

On a 40-degree afternoon, Parker pitched a two-hitter to lead Portales past Eunice 12-1 Saturday at the Portales softball complex.

“It’s kind of frustrating because I don’t know if I’m going to pull something,” she said about pitching in the cold. “But my arm got warm pretty fast and I did OK.”

The game was tied 1-1 at the end of the fourth, but the Lady Rams (2-4) scored two runs in the fifth then exploded for nine in the bottom of the sixth to end the game with the 10-run mercy rule.

Portales coach Robbie Crowley said lately, her team has been giving up the big innings.

“We finally were on the good end of that explosion,” Crowley said. “We finally started hitting the ball.”

Portales lead-off hitter Amanda Terry went 3-for-3 with a walk and catcher Jessica Adkins was 4-for-4 with three runs and a stolen base.

Crowley said she knows offense is not her team’s forté, so she was pleased to see her team score 12 runs.

“I’ve said all along our weakest aspect of this game is hitting,” Crowley said.

Eunice coach and Eastern New Mexico University grad D.P. Phillips said the cold weather and an injured pitching hand got to his hurler.

“Our pitcher hurt her wrist this last inning,” Phillips said. “So she couldn’t get any velocity on her pitches. They’re a good enough team where they’re going to hit you if all you can throw is batting-practice speed.

“It went from 3-1 to 11-1 in a hurry, and that’s the way the ball bounces sometimes. But hats off to them, they did a good job.”