The Temple College Leopard softball team lost to Chipola College 7-3 to open day two at the NJCAA national tournament. Chipola struck first with three runs in the top of the first stringing together three hits and two walks before Temple's Breanna Hernandez settled and was able to strikeout three Chipola hitters. Temple answered in the bottom of the first with two runs on three hits. Alyssa Escamilla, Tiler Noyola, and Savanna Parker strung together back to back to back singles to start the Leopard offense with Parker and Maddie Weatherly getting RBIs. The Leopard offense stayed fairly quiet until the bottom of the sixth when they scored their final run. With two outs MacKenzie Purcell drew a walk then Kennedy Jimenez singled and Ava McCoy followed with a RBI single. Hernandez took the loss for the Leopards throwing five innings allowing seven runs, four earned, on 10 hits. Taylor Gruell came in and threw two innings in relief allowing just one hit and no runs. Escamilla and Noyola both went 2 for 4 in the game.
The loss to Chipola put the Leopards in the loser's bracket where they faced Tyler Junior College at 7:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. central). The Leopards defeated Tyler 13-5 in five innings to close out day two in St. George. The Leopards faced a 3-0 deficit going into the bottom of the second before getting on the board. Purcell reached on an error in the bottom of the second and Jimenez singled to put Purcell in scoring position before Lenzi Stewart singled to score Purcell. The Leopards used six hits, three walks, and a hit by pitch to generate seven runs in the third to open the gates on the Apaches. The Leopards scored one in the fourth and four more in the fifth for the run rule. The game ended on a hard single off the bat of Purcell that was misplayed by Tyler's right fielder to allow the bases to clear and for Purcell to be waved home and just slide under the tag for the final run of the game. Hernandez threw 3.2 innings for the win and Gruell earned the save in 1.1 innings of work.
The Leopards will face Shelton State tomorrow at noon (1:00 p.m. central).