![Assistant Athletic Director of Academic Retention & Services Jill Gerloff delivers the opening speech at her final NGWSD dinner before her retirement. “I love all of my athletes and my women's teams always show up for me, and I want to make sure that I can do something to show up for them,” Gerloff said. [File photo]](https://therambler.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/OpeningSpeaker_Gerloff-1200x800.jpg)
On Feb. 24, the Texas Wesleyan softball team battled against the Dallas Christian College Crusaders in a doubleheader matchup at Sycamore Park.
The Lady Rams had previously defeated the Crusaders in game 1 [9 – 7] and looked to ride that momentum into game 2. The Lady Rams held a [2 – 1] lead to start the second inning, but after a homerun was hit out of the park by Crusaders outfielder Laila Robins, the Lady Rams fought to hold on.
“I think at the end of the day, we beat ourselves,” Kylie Barnes, junior utility said. “We proved it in the first game that they were beatable, but in the second game we beat ourselves, and we got to come back from that.”
Robins’ homerun ball in the second inning would not be the last one to fly out of the ballpark, in total, six homeruns were hit with only one credited to Barnes. Shannon Gowers, Lady Rams head softball coach, is proud of the effort her team showed in the last two innings.
“What’s been great about this group is that they do show they can fight,” Gowers said. “No matter what the score is, they are continually fighting.”
The Crusaders dugout shouted relentless and taunting chants towards the Lady Rams dugout during pitching staff rotations. Payton Blanco, junior shortstop, said the energy could have been even louder than what it was against the Crusaders.
“I’ve seen games where everyone is screaming and everyone’s happy, and this game just wasn’t like that,” Blanco said.
At the bottom of the sixth, Blanco hit a two-run double to cut the lead [6 – 12]. Unfortunately, the Lady Rams could only muster up one run in the seventh inning before the Crusaders sealed the game away with a strikeout against Lady Rams centerfielder Rachet Houston.
“I wanted to do anything I can to help our team, even if we did lose,” Blanco said.
The Lady Rams fell to a [6 – 7] overall record and look to bounce back against the Mid-American Christian University Evangels on Feb. 27 at Sycamore Park in another doubleheader matchup.
