The Texas Tech softball team split a doubleheader with New Mexico State Tuesday, earning a 7-4 win in game one before falling 3-1 in the nightcap Tuesday at Rocky Johnson Field.

In the midst of a nine-game home stand, the Red Raiders (8-6) moved their winning streak to five games by taking the 7-4 win in the first game Tuesday, before having that streak halted one game shy of their most consecutive wins since 2014. NM State (9-5), a 2017 NCAA Tournament team, now sports wins over Texas Tech and Kentucky on the year.

“I feel like in the first game we were clearly way more relaxed at the plate,” head coach Adrian Gregory said. “I thought we hit a lot more confidently, hit better with runners in scoring position, and our defense played a little bit more sound. In the second game we didn’t do all of those things..”

Junior Jessica Hartwell, who had missed the last five games with a hand injury, returned to the lineup in game one and made her presence immediately felt. The captain blasted two-run home runs in each of her first two at bats to jumpstart the Red Raider offense. Hartwell finished the day 4-for-6 with two home runs, five RBI, a double and two free passes.

“Clearly, that kid plays with so much confidence and she plays the game so hard,” Gregory said. “She was voted team captain by her team. It’s huge for us, not even because of numbers and of what she did today, but in how she plays the game. It is so right and so contagious; it makes our kids play more confidently on the field.”

Texas Tech led held a 4-2 lead in the first game before NM State tied it with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. The Red Raiders responded quickly as freshman Claire McKissick led off the bottom half of the frame with her first career home run. Doubles from outfielders Michaela Cochran and Karli Hamilton tacked on two more to give Tech a 7-4 lead.

Reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Week Erin Edmoundson (5-1) followed a solid start from sophomore Kassidy Scott to throw 3.2 innings in relief and earn her fifth straight win. The freshman came on in the nightcap to add 4.2 more innings of relief to bring her totals on the day to 8.1 innings, three hits, no runs and nine strikeouts.

Each of the first five batters in the Red Raider lineup recorded two hits as Tech outhit the Aggies 12-8 in the first game. Redshirt freshman Heaven Burton and junior Kiana Workman joined Hartwell, Cochran and Hamilton with multi-hit games. Burton has now hit safely in six straight games after adding a double in game two.

The Aggies got on the board early in game two with a bases-loaded walk, but the Red Raiders escaped the jam thanks to a running catch in shallow right center by McKissick. NM State grew their lead to 3-0 in the third with a pair of unearned runs.

Tech battled back in the bottom of the third as Burton recorded her first career double and then scored on a base hit from Hartwell. That would be all Tech could muster as Aggie freshman Analise De La Roca worked around four hits in 4.0 innings of work to keep the Red Raiders from mounting a rally.

Texas Tech hosts the eighth-annual Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic March 2-4 at Rocky Johnson Field. The Red Raiders will welcome New Mexico, UTSA and Bowling Green to Lubbock with five games on the docket, starting with the Lobos Friday at 3:30 p.m.