It didn’t. At least not completely as Temple split with Grayson, winning the first game 5-3 then losing the second 14-6 to fall to 19-21 overall and 6-8 in Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference play.
“A split wasn’t really what we needed,” Temple coach Larry Hennig said. “They are in that fourth and fifth place spot with us, and those are the teams we will be competing with the rest of the way out.”
Bruceville-Eddy product Haley Friudenberg picked up the win in the opener, allowing 10 Grayson hits.
“Haley pitched well,” Hennig said. “They are one of the best hitting teams in the conference and she held them down. That was a bright spot.”
Jessica Heinlein provided most of the offense for TC with a 3-for-4 performance.
But the second game was a different story as Grayson exploded for 17 hits in a 5-inning mercy rule win. Rockdale product Samantha Meyer was the victim in the circle, allowing four runs in just one inning of work, as Grayson scored in all five innings.
Temple had cut the lead to 10-6 in the fifth and had the bases loaded with only one out, but was unable to capitalize, and Grayson scored four in the bottom of the inning.
“That just turned on us,” Hennig said. “We are down four and threatening, and don’t score, and they turn it into an eight-run win in the bottom of the inning.”
The split puts Temple seven games behind first-place North Central Texas and in the middle of the pack in the standings at the halfway point - a spot Hennig isn’t too familiar with.
“Now I’m beginning to see how these fifth and sixth place teams have always felt,” said Hennig, whose teams have either won conference or finished second eight of the program’s nine previous seasons. “The top six teams make the tournament, so basically the worst two miss, but being fifth or sixth is not fun. The top two teams you basically just win one game a day for three days to advance. The rest of the teams use up everything they have just to try to get there. But there’s still a possibility."
