Norman, OK (2/28/07) The North Texas softball team looks to get back to winning ways with a road trip to Oklahoma, beginning on Thursday with a single game against the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners. The Mean Green then travels to Tulsa where the team will compete in the Great Western Downtown Plaza Classic for the third straight season.
The Mean Green (3-10) has lost seven straight games, including the last two at Lovelace Stadium's home opener. The seven-game losing streak is NT’s longest losing streak since the 2005 season. In 2005, NT had losing streaks of seven and 10 games. In 2004, North Texas lost a record 11
straight games.
“We have a tough road trip ahead, but I expect the team to play much better then we have,” said North Texas head coach Kelly Burns.
North Texas will play three Big XII teams in the next three days. The Mean Green is 0-9 in the series against Oklahoma. NT will then face Iowa State, Tulsa and Kansas in the Tulsa tournament. NT is 1-1 against Tulsa and 0-1 versus the Jayhawks. North Texas will meet Iowa State for the first time.
There is no better place for the Mean Green to get things turned around then Tulsa, Oklahoma. North Texas won the tournament in 2005 and took third place at last year’s tournament. In 2005, the Mean Green won the tournament with a 4-1 record. NT defeated Oklahoma State (4-3), Louisiana-Monroe (4-3), Tulsa (4-2) and Wisconsin (3-1). Mandy Hacker, Susan Waters and Kristina Fowler were named to the all-tournament team. Last year, North Texas went 3-2 in the tournament with losses to Tulsa and Eastern Illinois. Susan Waters and Katya Muller were named to the all-tournament team.
Burns has addressed the team about its play the last couple games.
“I met with all the upperclassmen on Thursday,” said Burns. “We’ve turned practice around. We’ve increased our intensity. We restructured. Practice has been much better, much more intense. The kids are responding really well.”
The Mean Green’s hitting and pitching statistics have gone downhill since the opening week. In week one, North Texas hit .276 and posted an ERA of 4.20 through fi ve games. Over the course of the second week and through the next five games, the Mean Green hit .222 as a team and recorded an ERA of 5.52 In the last three games, North Texas is only hitting .197 and has an ERA of 7.39.
Susan Waters hit her team-leading fourth home run in the 10-3 loss to Nicholls State. She has posted four home runs in the fi rst 13 games. Last year, she hit four long balls in the fi rst 11 games. She leads the team with a .421 hitting percentage, nine RBI, 30 total bases and a .789 slugging percentage.
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