Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
DENISON, Texas – After blanking Barton County College, 9-0, in the opener, third-ranked Murray State blasted its way to a 28-3 romp over Vernon College for an opening day sweep in the Annual THF Winter Blast on Friday afternoon.

Coach Aaron Mullens' unit improved to 10-0 on the season and will wrap up the Texas event Saturday with an 11:15 a.m. meeting with Pratt Community College before tangling with Rose State at 1:30 p.m.

The Lady Aggies broke open a scoreless game in the third inning against Barton with a seven-run uprising, which proved to be plenty of support for starting hurler Bella Hardeman, who had a perfect game going while facing the minimum number of hitters through four stanzas. She fanned five with Bradi Harman tossing in the final inning of scoreless relief, yielding a single hit.

Karsyn Nye got things rolling with the first of her two doubles in the contest leading off the key third inning blitz. Harman followed a Brylee Fanning single with a two-run hit of her own for the first Murray State runs of the game.

Adison "Bubba" Lee, Cady Ammons and Kaylee Carter followed with a string of three straight doubles that pushed the edge to 5-0. Nye added her second two-bagger of the onslaught to drive in the final two tallies.

Ammons smacked another double to knock in the final two tallies in the fourth to set up the run rule. She finished with a team-high four RBI.

Harman and Lee each joined Ammons and Nye with two hits apiece for Murray State, which also got one from Fanning and one from Carter.

In the Vernon contest, the Lady Aggies built a 6-0 cushion through two frames spurred by home runs from Nye and Haili Igou.

Vernon countered with three tallies in the bottom of the second to cut the lead in half before the Lady Aggies erupted for the massive 19-run frame that included three more home runs as they sent 22 batters to the plate.

For the game, Murray State pounded out 26 hits as 14 different players got in on the barrage. Carter had four of the hits, including a homer and double driving in three runs. Kennedy Lord knocked in four runs with three hits that included a pair of doubles. Igou racked up three hits as well.

Igou, Nye, Brighton O'Connor and Brynn Surmont also smacked home runs for the Lady Aggies, who wrapped up with 12 extra base hits as a team.

Harman, Ammons, Surmont, Nye and Ryann Phillips notched two hits apiece with Lee, O'Connor, Avery Beauchamp, Kendyl Overton, Emily Rogers and Ryley Severson all contributing one.

DrewAnn White, Alanna Routt and Carolyn Overton all saw pitching action in the five-inning affair with Routt and Overton both tossing up scoreless appearances as well as three strikeouts each.