TUCSON, Ariz. – The Lady Railsplitters' offense went quiet on the opening day of the 2017 Cactus Classic, as Lincoln Memorial (4-2) dropped an 8-1 decision against the Academy of Art (4-3) in game one before losing to No. 2 nationally-ranked West Texas A&M (13-0) 1-0 in game two on Friday at Lincoln Park in Tucson, Arizona.
 
Lincoln Memorial combined for just nine hits in the doubleheader, but will look to bounce back on Saturday when they face Fort Lewis at 11:30 a.m. and the University of Mary at 1:30 in the final day of the Cactus Classic.
 
Game One: Academy of Art 8, Lincoln Memorial 1
 
The Urban Knights scattered 13 hits, scored in four consecutive innings and took advantage of three LMU errors to hand the Lady Railsplitters their first loss of the season. Lincoln Memorial showed signs of rust in its first game action in nine days, mustering just six hits while stranding eight on base.
 
Freshman Dakotah Fraley (Walkersville, Md.) went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles, while senior BriAnna Schrimpf (Chandler, Ariz.) went 2-for-3 with a solo home run (the first for LMU this season), but the rest of the team finished 2-for-19. Jennifer Moose (Statesville, N.C.) and Kelsie Hocutt (Wendell, N.C.) had the other two hits, both singles, while Allie Jones (Ooltewah, Tenn.) reached in three of her four plate appearances with a trio of walks.
 
Freshman pitcher Justice Smith (Rockmart, Ga.) had a rough go of it in her third career start, allowing seven hits and five earned runs before getting pulled with no outs in the top of the third. Hocutt threw the last five frames in relief and limited the Knights to two earned runs on six hits with a pair of strikeouts. Smith fell to 2-1 on the season with the loss.
 
Hannah Rose Balke tossed a complete game to lead Art U to victory, surrendering just six hits and one run on Schrimpf's solo blast. She had control issues at times with four walks, but added three strikeouts to move to 3-1 on the year.
 
Five players finished with multiple hits for the Urban Knights. Freddie Carrillo led that effort with three singles, an RBI and a run, while Gracie Sotomayor, Samantha Klune, Jessica West and Hallie Curtis had two hits apiece. Adrianna Rupright drove in two runs to lead all players in that department.
 
The Lady Railsplitters had runners on first and third in the bottom of the first, but an infield pop-up kept LMU from taking the early lead. That was the first of three innings in which the Lady Railsplitters would leave at least two runners on base.
 
Art U opened the scoring in the top of the second, as West and Curtis singled in back-to-back at-bats with two outs. After Curtis stole second to put both runners in scoring position, Rupright singled through the left side of the infield to make it 2-0.  
 
The Urban Knights then broke the game open in the top of the third with a four-run outburst. A throwing error by Smith sparked the rally and ultimately led to her exit from the game, as Art U followed that with three straight singles. Another LMU throwing error on the final single allowed the third run of the inning to score. Brenna Youngquist then doubled in a run off of Hocutt to make it a 6-0 lead for Art U.
 
Art U scored a run in the top of the fourth, but Schrimpf erased that with a two-out, solo home run in the home half of that inning. However, West reached on a fielder's choice and scored on a single by Curtis in the top of the fifth to extend the Urban Knights' lead to 8-1.
 
The Lady Railsplitters put four total runners on base over the closing stretch, including two in the bottom of the fifth, but couldn't push another run across.
 
Game Two: No. 2 West Texas A&M 1, Lincoln Memorial 0
 
Junior hurler Brianna Taylor (Ooltewah, Tenn.) silenced one of the most prolific offenses in the nation, limiting the Lady Buffs to a season-low one run on four hits. West Texas A&M's previous low for runs was five, while their lowest hit total this season was seven.
 
However, Lady Buff starter Kilee Halbert allowed just three hits and struck out nine in the complete-game shutout to lead the 2014 National Champions to their 13th straight victory to open the 2017 season. Halbert retired the last nine batters she faced – striking out five over that span - and held LMU to a 0-for-11 mark with runners on base. She moves to 6-0 on the season.
 
Taylor allowed the only run of the game in the bottom of the first inning. Kourtney Coveney set up that run by drawing a one-out walk and scored on a double from Ashley Hardin.
 
Taylor gave up two singles in the bottom of the second, but retired 13 of the last 15 batters she faced and didn't allow a runner to get past second base after that. The Lady Buffs, who entered the game hitting .399 as a team, went 4-for-21 (.190) against Taylor. The Ooltewah, Tenn. native finished with a pair of strikeouts and two walks to suffer the hard-luck loss and fall to 2-1 on the season.
 
All three LMU hits were singles and were accounted for by Jones, Hocutt and Teddi Collins (Germantown, Ohio). Aside from that, the Lady Railsplitters produced just two other base runners, as Moose reached on an error in the first and Ashlea Hunter (Woodruff, S.C.) was hit by a pitch in the sixth.
 
The Lady Railsplitters' best scoring opportunity came in the top of the second when Hocutt singled and advanced to third on a groundout by Schrimpf. However, back-to-back strikeouts ended the threat.
 
The last time West Texas A&M was held to one run or less was on May 5, 2016, when Colorado Mesa accomplished that feat in the second game of the South Central Regional Championship. It's only the third time it's happened in the last two seasons combined.