WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Midwestern State's Katlyn Holmes pitched her way out of early trouble and Erin Knox delivered a pinch-hit two-out single in the bottom of the seventh to lift the Mustangs to a 1-0 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville in Game 1 here Saturday afternoon.
 
MSU improved to 20-9 by claiming its sixth consecutive win and also edged its Lone Star Conference leading mark to 8-1, while the Javelinas fell to 7-21 and 2-8.
 
Holmes weaved her second shutout of the season to improve to 8-4 on the season, but had to work through some early inning difficulty first.
 
The freshman from Gunter stranded a pair of runners in scoring position in the second inning getting Myrissa Sanchez to ground out to second then struck out Cortnee White swinging to escape the frame unscathed.
 
TAMUK leadoff header Bailey Offill led off the third with a double off of the left field fence before Holmes failed to control a pair of inside pitches plunking consecutive hitters to load the bases with no outs.
 
She then induced fielder's choice ground outs to third and shortstop to cut down the runners at the plate before escaping the innings by striking out Taylor McGill.
 
She allowed two more hits over the final four innings for a total of six hits with two strikeouts and one walk while making her first start in two weeks.
 
Texas A&M-Kingsville's Carlie Clark also gave Midwestern all it could handle by allowing one run on five hits in 6 2/3 innings while falling to 3-10 on the season.
 
The Mustangs left the bases loaded in the second inning and produced just three more base runners outside of the frame heading into the seventh.
 
But Katelyn Vinson singled through the right side, moved to second on Baylee Voigt's sacrifice bunt and scored on Knox's RBI single through the left side to provide the lone tally of the contest.
 
Vinson, Voigt, Holmes, Knox and Katy Vandewater accounted for MSU's five hits, while Offill was 2-for-4 to pace Texas A&M-Kingsville.