Ft. Worth, Texas -- In what is likely the earliest start ever for a spring softball season at IHCC, the Warriors played five games in two days in the Cowtown Classic and won four of the five to get their 2018 campaign off to a fast start.

Indian Hills took the first four contests they played, beating a quartet of Texas schools by knocking off Angelina 9-1, Trinity Valley 4-2, El Paso 10-1 and North Central Texas 4-2, before dropping a hard-fought 2-0 decision to No. 15-ranked Weatherford (Tex.).

Sophomore Abby Straight got the start in the circle for the season-opener and permitted only four hits and an unearned run in the five-inning victory.  Straight fanned seven and received good offensive support with the Warriors banging out nine hits and scoring at least one run in four of their five at-bats.  The big inning was a four-run 3rd.  IHCC had doubles by Katelyn Banning, Lexi Smith, Cheyanne Bergert and Vanessa Bakley and Straight and Bergert each drove in two runs.  Taylor Jones provided two hits, two runs scored and two steals and Erin Kuba scored twice.

Another four-run 3rd inning in the following game was all the Warriors needed in defeating Trinity Valley.  Alexis Westercamp had two of the six IHCC hits and Taylor Takushi and Banning produced the RBIs.  Takushi, Jones, Westercamp and Taylor DuBois scored the runs for Indian Hills.  Olivia Goodale, an all-region pitcher a year ago, went the distance and allowed four hits while striking out five without a walk in her initial start of 2018.

The El Paso rout saw IHCC score in all four at-bats and, for the third game in a row, had a four-run inning.  Of their 13 hits, Banning, Straight and DuBois each had two and Takushi and Straight scored two times each.  The Warriors hammered five doubles -- by Westercamp, Takushi, Banning, Helaina Johnson and Carlyn Stanley -- and Straight and Bakley tripled as part of the IHCC attack.  Stanley pitched the distance in the five-inning game.  She gave up five hits and an unearned run, striking out four.

The first game on Saturday was win No. 4, against North Central Texas.  The game was tied at 1-1 when the Warriors went on top with a pair of runs in the top of the 6th and they tacked on another score in the 7th.  A pair of freshmen, Tia Kohl and Stanley, combined for the pitching duties.  Kohl, the 4th different starter in four games for coach Laura North, went the first 5 1/3 innings and gave way to Stanley in the 6th.  They were charged with seven hits and one earned run.  Erin Kuba drove in two runs with a triple and Straight knocked in one run.  Jones stole two bases, collected two hits and two runs.

Pitchers Casson Rasmussen of Weatherford and Olivia Goodale of IHCC matched zeroes through six innings in Saturday's second game.  Weatherford got to Goodale for two runs in the 7th and that was the difference.  Goodale gave up six hits and fanned two.  One of the runs was unearned.  The Indian Hills offense was limited to four hits -- a double by Straight, a triple by Banning and singles from Jones and Bergert. 

The Warriors were slated to take on Grayson College in a doubleheader on Sunday.