The Cameron Collegian - March 12, 2018

Collegian T he Cameron University

Prairie Power: www.aggiecentral.com

DR. SARAH EPPLER JANDA

Monday, March 12, 2018

Volume 98 Issue 6

Student Activism, Counterculture, Backlash Sarae Ticeahkie

about activism correlate to the festival subtheme “Social A&E Editor Justice and the American Dream.”

From 2-3:30 p.m., March The event included a discussion, an open question 6, in the CETES Conference Center, Cameron celebrated and answer session, a signing “Academic Festival X: and an opportunity for visitors American Identities in the 21st to purchase the book.

Century” with a book talk and Recently published by the signing by Professor of History University of Oklahoma Press, Dr. Sarah Eppler Janda.

“Prairie Power” focuses on Janda discussed her new 1960s era student activism and book “Prairie Power: Student “dropping out” on Oklahoma Activism, Counterculture, and college campuses.

Backlash in Oklahoma, 1962Janda said not many people 1972.” paid attention to student The publication’s ideas activism in Oklahoma, so

she wanted to detail specific Oklahoman experiences.

“I thought it was important to highlight the fact that there’s a lot of variation among the activists,” she said.

“They’re not all the same − activists from OSU differed significantly from some of the activists at the University of Oklahoma.”

She said the book explores student activism culture on a national level and how different government entities responded to protests and resistance.

“I also thought it was

important to point out the surveillance culture that was emerging,” she said.

“The FBI, a lot of police departments, red squads, all collected information. The army collected surveillance information.”

“Prairie Power” also examines hippies in Oklahoma and nationally and how previous movements, including the back-to-land movement and the search for authenticity, inspired the free-thinkers.

The University of Oklahoma’s Chapter of Students for Democratic Photo by Sarae Ticeahkie

Society and the Anti-war Movement fit into the hippy mentality of the midwest and southwest; a blend of free-speech advocacy, countercultural expression and anarchist tendencies set them apart from most east coast student activists.

Drawn to Oklahoma history, Janda felt that other historians had not thoroughly written about the subject.

“I wrote the book to fill a gap in the historical record by examining activists and hippies in Oklahoma and putting them in the context of larger national trends in the period,” she said.

Janda said the book took several years to write, but with help from colleagues and a semester off from teaching, she completed the project.

Apart from her recent book release, Janda has written two other books about historical Okahoman experiences.

Published in 2007, “Beloved Women: The Political Lives of Ladonna Harris and Wilma Mankiller” takes a look at the lives of two Native American women from Oklahoma who thought of themselves as feminists with strong Indian identities.

Published in 2010, “Pride of the Wichitas: A History of Cameron University,” focuses on Cameron’s 100-year history from its inception as the Cameron State School of Agriculture in 1908 through the university’s yearlong Centennial Celebration in 2008.

For more information about upcoming Festival X events, visit the www.cameron.edu/ festivalx/calendar-of-events.

Protests in the past and present: (Above) CU Professor of History Dr. Sarah Eppler Janda autographs a copy of her new book “Prairie Power: Student Activism, Counterculture, and Backlash in Oklahoma, 1962-1972” for Instructor of English and Foreign Languages Leah Chaffins.

Cameron hosted a signing to celebrate the recently published work at 2 p.m., March 6, in the CETES Conference Center. (Right) Students protest for stricter gun control laws on Feb. 21, in front of the White House, after 17 people died in the Florida school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

What’s inside

Tribune News Service

Education at LGBTQ Summit Page 3

Freshmen struggle to adapt to college

Aggie softball takes on Texas A&M

Page 4

Page 6

News

2

March 12, 2018

www.aggiecentral.com

Photos by Stacie Larsen

Great expectations: (Left) Cameron English Instructor Leah Chaffins and Assistant Professor Dr. Sue Tyrrell draw names for prizes at the annual English and Foreign Languages meet and greet. (Top right) Associate Professor Dr. Yingqin Liu and students enjoy light refreshments. (Bottom right) Associate Professor Dr. William Carney shares a laugh with students.

English department meet-and-greet Stacie Larsen

As Chair of the Recruitment Committee News Editor for the English department, she said it’s important to her From 2-4 p.m., Feb. that students feel included.

28, in the MCC Ballroom, “It’s open to everybody Cameron’s English and because we want students Foreign Languages who might be thinking Department hosted its about being an English second annual meet-andmajor to come in and realize greet open to students, that there’s this whole faculty and staff. community and a great Cameron English sense of oneness,” she said.

Instructor Leah Chaffins Upon arrival, each said the purpose of the attendee is given the meet-and-greet is to bring opportunity to enter in a all English majors together drawing for various prizes. and provide them with a “We get the prizes chance to meet professors predominately from the within the department.

English department staff,” “You might have a she said. “We all make student who will know make donations of books two or three professors and candles or whatever we who are in their field, like have.” education, but you might She also said the not meet any of the others,” department received she said. “We really want donations from the staff at a community experience Cameron’s Office of Public within the English Affairs. department.

“We want this to be an “This was the experience where you feel opportunity for all of us to like you’re getting something get to know the students,” for being here,” she said. she said, “the students to “You feel good when you get to know us, [and] the win. students to get to know “Everybody leaves a each other.” winner this way, and that’s

the goal. We want everybody to leave a winner.”

Chaffins said she believes that these kind of events are important to have at a university because they give students an opportunity to share ideas and connect beyond the classroom.

“We get caught up in the books and the classes,” she said, “but the college experience is more than that. It’s about each other.”

Chaffins said what she enjoyed most about the event was being able to talk to other writers.

“I’m an English instructor but my MFA is Creative Writing,” she said, “so I really enjoy talking with other creative writers.

“In the middle of a semester or year, you don’t really get the opportunity to do that. I had some really good conversations. We all want that.”

Senior Sigma Tau Delta President Jessica Allmon said she enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with other English majors.

“To see all of us together that had something in common outside of a

classroom was nice.

“All the best friends I’ve had, I’ve met in the English department.”

She said her favorite part of the event was watching people walk up to the prize table and leave with a book.

“That to me is just so quintessential of an English major,” Allmon said. “ You go to get a prize and walk away with a book.”

During the meet-andgreet, Allmon annouced that Cameron’s English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta, is sponsoring a literary journal called “The Rose” and is accepting submissions from students, staff and faculty until April 1, 2018.

She said the journal will consist of fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry.

The maximum length for submission is three pieces or 3,000 words for fiction/ nonfiction and five poems.

The journal is also accepting artwork, including drawings and photography.

Both must be sent in an email as an attachment in jpeg format, along with an artist’s statement.

If interested,

send submissions to sigmataudeltarose@gmail. com.

The title and genre, along with the author’s name, needs to be in the subject line.

For more information about submitting work to Sigma Tau Delta’s literary

journal, “The Rose,” contact Jordan Mackey at (580) 641-0301 or send an email to jm915504@cameron.edu.

For information regarding Cameron’s Department of English and Foreign Languages, call (580) 581-2272 or visit room 2014 in Nance Boyer.

In memoriam: McKeown Robert King Staff Writer

Last Thanksgiving, retired CU Professor Dr. Loren McKeown and his wife Rebecca McKeown died in a car accident.

McKeown started teaching in 1969, and he stayed at Cameron for 28 years. Before retiring in 1997, McKeown was the English and Foreign Languages Department Chair for 13 years.

In 1987, McKeown earned a Distinguished Faculty Award, and in 2002, the Cameron University Alumni Association inducted him into the Faculty Hall of Fame.

The McKeowns created the Loren and Rebecca McKeown Endowed Scholarship in 2016, which provides financial support for incoming freshmen majoring in English.

Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Margery Kingsley worked in the English Department from 1994 to 2013.

At the time, McKeown headed the screening committee that hired her.

She said the McKeowns were very supportive of their colleagues and students.

“They put their whole lives into education,” she said.

“Dr. McKeown did a lot for the university, but he also did a lot for every individual student. I remember he had

Photo courtesy of Public Affairs

students in his office, and he tried to do everything he could to help them out.”

Kingsley also said she remembered when she first met the McKeowns, and how they were some of the nicest people

she had ever met.

“I remember him and his wife really well,” she said.

“When I came to town for my interview, they had me at their house where they cooked dinner and drove me back to the airport the next day. For me they were really nice.

“I came here from Los Angeles. I had no idea what to expect in Oklahoma, what the people would be like. They were some of the first people I met, and they helped me decide to stay.”

His wife taught in the Lawton Public School system as a principal and a schoolteacher, which is how Vice President of University Advancement Albert Johnson knew her.

He said she was bubbly and outgoing.

“She had the most pleasant personality that you could ever imagine,” he said.

Johnson also said the McKeowns were incredibly fun to be around.

“They were just a great couple together,” he said. “When you saw them, you thought of both of them together; you very seldom thought of them independently.”

Johnson said they are sorely missed on the Cameron campus.

“They were not only great fans of CU and their students,” he said, “but they were just good people. And whenever you have the opportunity to be around good people, it’s refreshing.”

March 12, 2018

www.aggiecentral.com

Student Life

3

Cameron freshmen the struggle of college life

Katie Livingston

“mostly a black hole.”

When she left public Staff Writer education and started going to college full time, she Every day while in high realized the transition would school, sophomore biology be a challenge. major Kaylee Craig took a Craig said her first “stress nap” when she came semester was overwhelming, home from school.

The cumulative anxieties mainly because her personal responsibilities of the day would hit her, and schoolwork increased and she would collapse, exponentially. exhausted from having to High school did not help deal with students who her prepare for college. didn’t want to be at school Junior early childhood and teachers who didn’t education major Reagan care.

Pyles had a similar For Craig, high school experience as a freshman. became physically and Pyles grew up in a strict mentally draining – her household, and her memory of the time

freshman year of college required her to function independently for the first time.

The sudden increase in workload also took a toll on Pyles; she experienced trouble balancing priorities.

Both Craig and Pyles struggled to adjust to their new roles and with their newfound freedoms.

During Craig’s high school days, teachers planned out her day from 8 a.m. to 3:25 p.m., making her feel restricted.

Restroom breaks had to be authorized, and Craig said some teachers locked

the doors when classes began.

“If you were late to class, you hoped to God the doors were unlocked,” she said. “[Otherwise] you would have to stay out in the hall.”

Even though she did not enjoy high school, she became acclimated to it.

Craig said this is what made adjusting to the freedom of college difficult.

“It was a struggle to think independently,” she said.

“Having to become your own person and find your own voice can be frightening.”

Pyles said having to deal with a lack of imposed structure made everything much more difficult.

In her first semester, one of her professors said students were allowed up to five absences from class, and Pyles took this to mean she could miss five classes with no repercussions.

Both Pyles and Craig struggled with time management their first semesters.

Void of the structure of high school, they were unsure of what to do with themselves at any given moment or how to balance their school work

and social lives.

A dramatic shift in workload also presented its own problems.

In high school, Craig’s idea of studying involved sitting in front of the TV with a book open on her lap.

She said teachers were lax with school work, and she received good grades using this strategy, but it did not prepare her for college level classes.

Pyles had a similar experience during her high school career, as she needed to do little to no serious studying to pass her classes.

She had teachers who gave students a little too much slack concerning due dates, frequently extending deadlines.

Pyles said she could distinguish which teachers would allow stunts to push these boundaries, and she took full advantage of them.

“Don’t let me play you [the teachers],” she said.

“Because if you let me play you, I’ll play you.”

Craig and Pyles experienced a shock when they entered college and realized that the course material was significantly more challenging than what they experienced previously, with neither having developed basic study habits.

However, they did adapt.

Craig now has a color-coded binder to keep track of her schedule and assignments, and she also disconnected the cable in her room.

Pyles has learned to set aside time and find a quiet location and focus on her work.

Craig said it’s difficult at first to adapt to college life, but it’s important for new freshmen to take their first semester seriously and devote time to studying.

“Don’t start with a bad GPA,” she said. “Start strong.”

Pyles said getting involved in clubs is vital for making connections early on but warned against getting too caught up in social engagements.

“In 10 years from now is it going to matter if you went to that party?” she asked. “No, it’s not.”

The unique combination of stressors freshmen face can make their transition from high school to college a difficult one.

While adjustment may be confusing and difficult at first, other students are proof of the fact that freshmen can overcome these difficulties and learn to become independent, responsible young adults.

Photo by Madison Lyda

Cameron hosts LGBTQ Summit

Photos by Stacie Larsen

Pride without prejudice: On March 3, Cameron University PRIDE and the Women United for Action (WUA) organization based in Southwest Oklahoma (bottom right) teamed up for the LGBTQ Summit. Cameron hosted the event in conjunction with Academic Festival X: “American Identities in the 21st Century.” PRIDE and WUA offered workshops on “How to be an Ally,” “ABC’s of LGBT” and “LGBTQ in Education.” Director of the LGBTQ Resource Center at Georgetown University Sivagami “Shiva” Subbaraman (top left) spoke about “Queer Ragas: Dancing Through the Minefields.”

4

Voices

March 12, 2018

www.aggiecentral.com

What makes freshmen drop out? way they were treated in elementary school and middle school.

Staff Writer Upon taking a closer look at how high schools function at a fundamental level, According to the Organization for especially in Oklahoma, this is no surprise.

Economic Cooperation and Development, According to the Oklahoma Policy 30 percent of enrolled college students in the Institute, Oklahoma is leading the nation United States dropout their freshman year, when it comes to budget cuts to education — and 53 percent drop out before they finish by a significant margin. their degree.

Oklahoma schools are among the most These dropout rates have several causes; underfunded in the United States, and the however, one contributing factor could be repercussions are clear. The ratio of teachers high schools’ inability to prepare students for to students is growing increasingly large, higher education, particularly in the areas of making managing students more difficult. freedom and academic readiness.

On top of that, school curriculum is Concerning freedom, many college homogenized, as the purpose of high school is students have difficulty adjusting from to deliver a standardized version of education. the strict rigidity of high school life to the Schools teach to standardized tests in order to absolute freedom of college. make sure students’ scores reflect well on the They are thrust into personal school and teachers. responsibility, unsure of how to grapple with This could explain why lack of freedom is it and adequately manage themselves. so prevalent in the high school setting.

The result is the stereotypical irresponsible With so many students to manage, and the freshman: up all hours of the night, missing reputation and funding of the school resting classes, turning in assignments late and on these students’ performance, educators struggling to find balance in life. can’t afford to allow students to make their However, the underlying problem causing own decisions. students difficulty in their transition cannot College, on the other hand, is based upon be solely attributed to the ignorance of youth. different assumptions. The college setting The root problem lies in how these treats students as adults, capable of making institutions differ in the way they treat their their own decisions and dealing with the students. consequences of those decisions.

High schools assume students are Because colleges have the advantage of incapable of personal responsibility and treat selectivity, they can choose who gets to enter them as juveniles in need of constant adult their student body. supervision and guidance, much in the same And since students are generally paying for

Katie Livingston

“With so many students to manage, and the reputation and funding of the school resting on these students’ performance, educators can’t afford to allow students to make their own decisions.”

— Katie Livingston

Staff Writer

About Us

The official student newspaper of Cameron University, The Cameron Collegian is available each Monday during the year. It is printed by the Lawton Constitution. The first issue is provided for free.

Each subsequent issue is $1.50.

Our Views

The opinions expressed in The Collegian pages or personal columns are those of the signed author.

The unsigned editorial under the heading “Voices” represents the opinion of the majority of the editorial board.

The opinions expressed in The Collegian do not necessarily represent those of Cameron University or the state of Oklahoma.

Our student media are designated public forums, and free from censorship and advance approval of content. Because content and funding are unrelated, and because the role of adviser does not include advance review of content, student media are free to develop editorial policies and news coverage with the understanding that students and student organizations speak only for themselves. Administrators, faculty, staff or other agents shall not consider the student media’s content when making decisions regarding the media’s funding or faculty adviser.

30% — College students who drop out in freshman year

their own education, there is an underlying assumption that they want to be there and are dedicated to learning and taking responsibility for their learning.

Skills taught in college are specialized and tailored to the individual, and whether students pass or fail, a class is never a reflection on the professor’s ability to teach, but the student’s ability to learn.

Because of the underlying assumptions at the heart of college learning, responsibility is inherently placed on the students.

While there might be a reasonable explanation for the differences in operation between college and high school, for many students, the transition is sudden and unexpected, making it difficult to adapt to their new roles.

Many of them also have trouble coping with their new workload, because high school didn’t prepare them academically for college.

According to data from PBS News, 96 percent of colleges in the United States enrolled students who needed remedial courses, and 209 schools placed at least half of their incoming freshmen into remedial courses.

This indicates a significant number of incoming freshmen do not have the fundamental math, reading and English skills they need to tackle the most basic college courses.

THE CAMERON UNIVERSITY

COLLEGIAN

There’s also evidence to suggest high school tests are not adequate barometers for predicting college readiness.

In the state of Massachusetts, a study by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education suggested that one third of students who received proficient grades on state administered standardized tastes had to take remedial courses when enrolled in college.

At Cameron University, out of the freshmen seeking a bachelor’s degree who enrolled in the Fall 2016, at least 39 percent needed a remedial course. Out of those seeking an associate’s degree, that number went up to 81 percent.

Students are unable to simply manage their time, let alone build a schedule that allows for hours of uninterrupted studying. Intro to University Life classes may attempt to help with this, but they are essentially a band aid over a gaping wound.

Students are ingrained with a certain mindset during their formative high school years, and these mindsets don’t help them.

Rather than being able to make a smooth transition from high school to college life, freshman year is a trial by fire. And until education systems adjust to help prepare students for college life, nothing will change.

Students will either learn how to adjust and survive, or they won’t.

Letters Policy

Founded in 1926 veritas sempiterna

Letters to the editor will be printed in the order in which they are received and on a space available basis.

Editorial Staff

The Collegian reserves the right to edit all letters for content and length.

Letters should be no more than 250 words. Letters from individual authors will be published only once every four weeks.

Managing Editor - Cheyenne Cole A&E Editor - Sarae Ticeahkie News Editor - Stacie Larsen Sports Editor - Drue Watkins Student Life Editor - Madison Lyda Voices Editor - Payton Williams Copy Editor - Drue Watkins Aggie Central Editor - Jeff Larson Social Media Editor - Kerry Schoonaert

Newsroom Staff

Financial Officer - Susan Hill Staff Writers - Zack Crow, Miranda Fritts, Abigail Gonzalez, Robert King, Katie Livingston, Justin Rose, Trevin Stevenson, Markel Turrell Advertising Manager - Cheyenne Cole Faculty Adviser - Mr. David Bublitz

All letters from students should include first and last names, classification and major. No nicknames will be used. Letters from people outside the Cameron community should include name, address and phone number for verification.

Letters can be sent by regular mail, by e-mail to aggiecentral@cameron. edu or they may be dropped off at our office - Academic Commons 101 or at www.aggiecentral.com.

March 12, 2018

www.aggiecentral.com

Make it rain:

A&E

5

The Prince of Funk VS. The King of Pop

Tribune News Service

Justin Rose

sophomore album, Prince released two controversial Staff Wrtier ones: “Dirty Mind” in 1980, and in 1981 “Controversy.”

Prince is better than Both albums pushed Michael Jackson. listeners’ boundaries by This is one of my taking on sexual and favorites arguments to have. religious themes.

Usually when I have this Then in 1982, he hit argument, the person who is his breakthrough with the on the side of Jackson knows album “1999.” very little about Prince and It features one of his most his music. They usually well-known songs, “Little just know the song “Purple Red Corvette,” which is not Rain.” about a car at all.

A flamboyant performer, However, his best work is Prince released his first yet to come. album at the age of 19.

“Purple Rain,” the album The album is called “For and rock musical movie, You,” and he produced it all came out in 1984. by himself.

It sold 10 million copies After his self-titled and spent 24 weeks on top

of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, while the film won an Academy Award.

At this point in his career, Prince had the number one album, single and film in the country.

Prince would continue touring and making music, including a Batman film soundtrack, until his death on April 21, 2016.

Jackson has the top selling album with “Thriller,” but I would argue that album sale numbers and how popular a musician is doesn’t mean they’re a better artist.

To me, Jackson played safe on all his albums to get that accolade.

Jackson catered to his

fans and provided familyfriendly music alongside his family-friendly image.

Prince would go out of his way to make the listener uncomfortable, and he was anything but family-friendly, as can be heard in the song “Darling Nikki.”

Prince constantly pushed the envelope with his albums, unlike Jackson. This makes Prince’s discography better.

There aren’t too many artists who can compete with Prince in terms of musicianship.

On his debut album, at the age of 19, Prince played every single instrument on the album, 27 total.

Also, who can forget that guitar solo at the end of “Purple Rain”?

While Jackson could dance with the best of them, he could only play a couple instruments; it’s really no contest between the two.

Music videos are one of the things I mostly look forward to when new music is released.

“Thriller” is one of the most, if not the most famous, music videos to date.

However, Prince wrote an entire soundtrack for two feature length movies: “Purple Rain” and Tim Burton’s “Batman.”

In live concerts, Jackson had amazing sets and could

wow anyone with his dance moves, and Prince would strip on stage and grind on guitars.

Let’s just look at both of their Super Bowl halftime performances.

While Jackson created the modern-day halftime spectacle, Prince perfected it.

Jackson lip-synched to a prerecorded tape of his songs while Prince belted out his major hits alongside classics like “All Along the Watchtower” and “Proud Mary.”

Prince also performed his with rain pouring down.

It’s really no contest.

Game, blouses.

The 52nd Annual

National art show Abigail Gonzalez

Photo courtesy of Kristi Smith

Mixed emotions: Del Mar College selected senior art major Kristi Smith’s linocut print and ink “Woody Allen” for the 52nd Annual National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show.

Staff Writer At 6 p.m., on Feb. 16, Del Mar College’s Joseph A. Cain Memorial Art Gallery hosted the 52nd Annual National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show.

Artwork by Four Cameron students and one faculty member’s art piece had been selected for the show.

The students included Sarah Enoch, Lanetta Davis, Tiana Buckner and Kristi Smith, and the faculty member is Professor Katherine Liontas-Warren.

Juror and Associate Professor from E.M. Raclin School of the Arts at Indiana University South Bend Dora Natella accepted 28 drawings and 24 sculptures out of the 197 entries.

Natella said she did her best to narrow down the choices, but it was difficult work.

“I was drawn to artwork that is evocative, mysterious and intellectually compelling,” she said, “where form and content come together to generate meaning and transcendence.”

Enoch’s monotype print piece artwork, titled “Cluster F*** Headache,” got accepted. She said the inspiration for her work came from a variety of sources.

“The floating head motif is one that I’ve carried across two semesters of advanced painting,” she said. “In the context of this piece, it signifies the sensation of chaos, confusion and being lost.”

Davis also had two of her pieces accepted into the show, including “Moonlit Night” and “Placebo.”

A monotype booty print, “Moonlit Night” is based on her personal travel. It is a part of a series she created to depict a

pueblo homes during different times of day.

“Placebo” is a charcoal drawing inspired by cancer patients who participate in drug trials; the art shows a person under a blanket while a scarecrow lurks in the background.

Buckner’s watercolor piece, “The Longest Kiss,” also gained acceptance. The piece shows two skeletons stuck together by their back ends. Buckner said she was inspired by the Guinness World Record, and she used the lip prop idea to make a theatrical and dramatic exaggeration of the record.

Smith’s submitted artwork is the monotype print piece, “Woody Allen.” She got the idea from the recent Hollywood sexual assault cases, and the artwork portrays a shadowy and dominant figure towering over a small silhouette of a girl in her bed, passed out drunk and high.

Smith said it came out the way she wanted.

“I knew how the ink and turpenoid would react with each other since ‘Woody Allen’ was the second or third turpenoid monotype print I had made,” she said.

Liontas-Warren had two pieces on display in the show.

Her first piece is a watercolor painting called “Fire in the Sky,” which illustrates a landscape painting of mountains overlooking a body of water.

Her second piece, “A Call from Nature,” is a charcoal drawing of a bird silhouette flying toward the clouds over a squareholed, mesh fence.

The individual pieces will be on display in the Joseph A. Cain Memorial Art Gallery until May 4 and available for purchase through Del Mar College.

6

Sports

March 12, 2018

www.aggiecentral.com

Aggies avoid sweep

Softball splits double-header against Lions it slowed us down more than it should have. Consistent offense would have helped during the series.”

Aggie freshman Makaylah Ramirez led the team in the double-header, going 4-7 with four RBI’s. Junior pitcher Rylee Willmon earned her seventh win of the season, giving up only one run on five hits and striking out four Lions.

For the Lions, reigning NFCA DII Player of the Week Mariah Jameyson led her team with five RBI’s and three runs scored.

To begin the double-header, the Lions got to a strong offensive start in game one.

Jameyson hit a three-run homer in the top of the first inning to kick-start the scoring and give the Lions a quick lead.

The Aggies retaliated with one run scored in the bottom of the first, as Ramirez hit a double that allowed sophomore shortstop Brenna Busby to run home from first base.

Photos by Drue Watkins Furr said Ramirez is coming into her own.

“She’s starting to figure to take the series by losing two Drue Watkins things out as a player,” he said. over the weekend.

Sports Editor The Aggies now sit at a 15-5 “Since she’s so young, she can grow and learn with the team, On March 3, the No. 18 overall record and 7-2 within and we’ve started seeing her Cameron softball team split the Lone Star Conference their double-header against (LSC). The Lions advance to a improve.”

Offensive production the No. 21 Texas A&M15-2 overall record and 5-1 in became stagnate in the second Commerce Lions, losing the the LSC. and third innings, but the first game 11-3 and winning Head coach Dennis Furr the second 2-1. said the team could have played fourth opened more scoring on both sides.

The double-header finished better over the weekend.

The Lions scored three more the three-game series against “We struggled to get things the Lions, as the Aggies failed going offensively,” he said, “and runs beginning with a solo

homer and a two RBI-triple, while the Aggies struck back with two runs of their own after a two-RBI single from Ramirez.

In the top of the fifth, the Lions led 6-3.

The small lead didn’t last long, however, as the Lions scored four more times in the fifth inning, ending with a three-run homer. The Aggies failed to put up any more runs throughout the rest of the game.

Furr said the inability to score in the latter half sealed it.

“The team needed to get more hits and get on base,” he said. “We didn’t do enough there, and there has to be improvement.”

The Lions finished the game after Jameyson hit her second homerun of the game, giving A&MCommerce the win, 11-3.

Cameron sophomore pitcher Bethany Hines earned her second loss of the season after struggling over the weekend, giving up a total of nine runs on nine hits and just one strikeout.

The second game of the day fared better for the Aggies, but the offenses faltered for both teams, as the game turned into a pitching duel between Willmon and the Lions’ Emily Otto.

Neither team scored in the first four innings

of the game, but Cameron did eventually strike first in the fifth inning.

Furr said it was good to get that first score.

“It established the tone, even though it was so late in the game,” he said. “If the team could get that run scored earlier on, the game wouldn’t have been so close.”

Aggie sophomore outfielder Kaylyn Smith hit a double, stole third base and then ran home after a throwing error by the Lions. After Smith’s score, Ramirez came up to bat and delivered for the Aggies, driving in senior Annie Combs on a single up the middle.

The Aggies led 2-0.

The Lions managed

to score a single run after a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning, but Willmon held on, shutting down the rest of A&M-Commerce’s scoring threat. She retired the side in the seventh inning, giving Cameron the 2-1 win.

Furr said he liked getting the final win, but didn’t like losing the series.

“This was a series that we could have won,” he said.

“We’ll go back to practicing hard and working on what needs to be worked on.”

On March 9-10, the Aggies play their next series at the Tarleton State TexAnns for three games. The TexAnns are 16-5 overall and 4-5 in the LSC.

Striving to win: (Left) Freshman outfielder Makaylah Ramirez prepares for the next batter-up. (Top) Sophomore pitcher Bethany Hines takes-off from second base.