Call Her Miss Flawless: Reyes Throws Perfect Game to Stifle Alcorn State 9-0

Naomi Reyes dazzled in the middle of the diamond as she faced the minimum number of batters to throw her first career perfect game against Alcorn State which helped the Texas Southern softball team win the opening game of their conference series 9-0 at Memorial Park Friday afternoon.

In her first-ever appearance against Alcorn State (3-10, 1-1 SWAC) for Texas Southern (5-12, 3-1 SWAC), Reyes recorded nine strikeouts in five innings of work against a lineup that boasted two of the last three SWAC Hitters of the Week in Marsha Hunt and Amari Ramsey. Despite the clear and imposing obstacles standing in her way, Reyes conducted herself without trouble on the mound, blanketing the SWAC’s lowest-productive offense to absolutely nothing of note in the final box score.

Counting this performance, Reyes is now the owner of two no-hit games for the Lady Tigers. Her first no-no happened on February 21, 2020 when she threw seven innings on just three walks and seven strikeouts against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

When Reyes struck out Hannah Dukes for the final out of the game, her teammates sprinted from every foreseeable angle to congratulate her in the middle of the field for achieving the remarkable feat by handing her the game ball. Furthermore, Reyes took a photo of herself holding the ball while accompanied by her battery-mate Daryn Haslam, with each posing a zero hand signal to symbolize the pitcher’s perfect game achievement.

Looking into the offensive side of the team, they took the lead in the bottom of the second inning by pouncing on Alcorn starter Ambria Dorsey. Starting off with two walks for Julia Bilbao and Tevanae Tate, Ja’Lynn Swiney notched in TSU’s first runs with a stand-up triple to left-center field, making it a partial 2-0 lead.

Ashling Shahan then sent Swiney home during the next at-bat as her RBI base hit gave TSU 3-0 lead. She went on to score the team’s fourth run after a wide throw to first by ASU on a putout attempt against leadoff batter Pamela Richardson which allowed her to advance home from second.

Texas Southern’s second offensive outburst transpired in the fourth inning where they scored five more unanswered runs to increase their shutout lead to 9-0. Richardson reignited the attack with her RBI single down the left-field line as the fourth batter of the inning. She was succeeded in the scoresheet by a Mila Rodriguez bases-loaded walk. Next, Daryn Haslam reached base off Alcorn’s third error which permitted two runners to score for a 8-0 score. Bilbao showed up again to create TSU’s ninth run on a sacrifice fly to center field that sent pinch-runner Deja Cain in to score.

Texas Southern and Alcorn State will lock horns once again on Saturday when they play a doubleheader that begins at 12 p.m. The second contest will take place approximately 30 minutes after the first game’s conclusion.