MANSFIELD, Texas – Laila Ruiz, a freshman on the Maryville softball team, started her collegiate career and the Saints' season with a bang, launching three home runs against St. Edward's to break the single-game home run record in her first career contest. The Saints blasted four total home runs against the Hilltoppers, with the other coming from second baseman
Jenna Kosnoff to lead off the game, en route to a 6-1 win to open the 2026 campaign.
The contest versus the Hilltoppers was one of two for the Saints as they opened 2026 down in Mansfield, Texas, as the Lone Star State Classic. The latter saw the Saints fall 6-4 to the Harding Bisons.
GAME 1 | Maryville 6, St. Edwards 1
The Saints wasted no time jumping out to a lead to open the season. Kosnoff crushed the fourth pitch of the game to deep left-center field for the first Saints homer of the year and the game's opening run. Ruiz kept the power coming with her first home run in her third at-bat of the game, sending one to right-center to give Maryville a 2-0 lead after the first inning.
Maryville added two more runs in the second as Kosnoff tripled, scoring both
Cailynn Gdowski and
Mandi Lenon. While the Saints were piling on runs,
Cora Boyle was cruising in the circle. The sophomore tossed four straight scoreless frames, including back-to-back innings in the second and third in which she faced the minimum.
Ruiz added her second home run of the game in the top of the fifth, leading off the inning by going yard to right field on a full count. The Hilltoppers finally broke through in the bottom half of the frame, forcing a pitching change to
Nora Johnson after the score became 5-1.
Johnson closed out the fifth and then allowed no hits over the final two innings to seal her first career appearance. Before the game ended, Ruiz once again demolished a softball, blasting her third home run of the day to deep center field to cap a historic performance.
GAME 2 | Harding 6, Maryville 4
Unlike the opener, the Saints played from behind in game two, surrendering a run in the second inning on an RBI groundout by the Bisons to trail 1-0. An error by Harding's pitcher in the third evened the score, allowing
Madi McBride to cross the plate. Ruiz later gave Maryville the lead with a sacrifice fly that scored
Leah Perales.
Another Harding error in the fourth extended the Saints' advantage to 3-1. The Bisons responded in the fifth with three runs and added two more in the sixth to take a 6-3 lead. Perales drove in her first career RBI in the sixth in an attempt to spark a rally, but Maryville came up short in a 6-4 defeat.
UP NEXT
Day two of the Lone Star Classic awaits the Saints. Maryville has one contest scheduled for Saturday, facing Midwestern State at 2 p.m. in Mansfield, Texas.
