Lady Rangers sweep pair twinbill from rival Cisco

The Ranger College Lady Rangers did what they had to do to keep their postseason hopes alive on Wednesday afternoon in front of their home fans: They swept a doubleheader with cross-county rival Cisco College.

With the two wins, Ranger College improved to 10-18 in Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference play and moved to within three games of Grayson College for the final berth in the upcoming Region V North Softball Championships.

Darrian Smith and Abby Lune provided the spark RC needed in Game 1. Smith, en route to picking up her ninth win of the season, limited Cisco to seven hits over seven innings. Luna highlighted a three-run sixth inning with a long home run that helped RC salt away a 6-3 victory.

Ranger grabbed the early lead in the showdown of the two Eastland County squads. Caitlin Rangel led off the bottom of the first with a single. One out later, Allyson Rodriguez reached base on a fielder's choice. Alyssa Berlanga followed with a sacrifice that enabled Rangel to score from third. That set up Smith's ensuing single to left that scored Rodriguez and put RC on top 2-0.

Smith added even more spark in the fourth. A freshman from Weimar, she led off the Lady Rangers' half of the inning with her first home run of the season, a line shot over the wall in right.

Cisco fought its way back. The Lady Wranglers scored three runs in the top of the fifth to tie the game at 3-3.

The RC bats came to life in the sixth. Rodriguez led off Ranger's ensuing at-bat by lining a double to the wall. She raced home moments later on an infield bunt single by Berlanga.

Rodriguez's double was her conference-leading 28^th two-bagger of the season.

Luna finished off the frame. The RC third baseman drilled a two-out pitch over the fence in left to cap a three-run outburst.

The Lady Rangers continued to hit away in Game 2. Ranger turned six hits and a walk into five first-inning runs and cruised to an easy 11-1 decision.

Mercedes Vergara kicked off the Lady Rangers' first-inning barrage with a single to left. Rodriguez quickly put RC on top by punching a triple to right that scored Vergara from first. Berlanga, Paige Smith and Luna pounded out back-to-back-to-back hits from there and extended the Lady Ranger lead to 4-0. Sidney Garza drove home the final run of the frame with a two-out single to left.

Ranger closed out the game with two runs in the third and four more in the bottom of the fourth.