Softball Drops Heartbreaker in Austin

AUSTIN – North Texas dropped a heart-breaking midweek affair against one of the nation's top teams on Wednesday night as the Mean Green fell to no. 4 Texas 3-2 in extra innings.

With the loss, the Mean Green fall to 8-2 on the year while the Longhorns move to a perfect 11-0.

"We put ourselves in a position to win tonight and we should've won the game," head coach Rodney DeLong said. "Overall we played like a championship team today, we played hard, made a lot of good plays and were really competitive all night at the plate. I'm proud of our effort and this experience will definitely make us better."

North Texas jumped out in front of the Longhorns in the first when they plated two runs to get the game underway. After Tarah Hilton reached on a fielding error by the Longhorn third basemen she came all the way around to score on a Lacy Gregory double to the right center gap.

Tayla Evans would drive in Gregory with a single to center to put the Mean Green up by two before the Longhorns even came to the plate.

The two runs tied the most runs that Texas has given up in the first inning of a game, the other occasion came on their opening game against Wichita State. The three runs the Longhorns scored also matched their lowest run output of the season.

Texas responded in the bottom half of the first by taking advantage of a trio of walks and a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to one.

From there on, each team's pitching staff would go to work.

Hope Trautwein got the start for the Mean Green and after the first inning would settle in and start retiring Longhorn hitters left and right. Trautwein went 8.0 innings while only surrendering four hits and striking out five.

From the second through sixth inning Trautwein retired 17 of 20 Longhorn hitters she faced.

"Hope was awesome tonight," Delong said. "It took her a couple of innings to settle in with the conditions being tough, but once the rain went away she threw really well."

The Longhorns tied that game at two in the seventh on a wild pitch to force extras. In the eighth inning, the Mean Grene loaded up the bases with one out but were unable to push a run across. Trautwein would respond by retiring the Longhorns in order in the bottom half to force a ninth frame.

A leadoff single would be all the Mean Green got in the ninth before a single, sac bunt and a single to right ended the game in favor of Texas.

The Mean Green will be on the road again this weekend as they head to Corpus Christi to compete in the Islander Invitational. North Texas will matchup with Texas A&M-Corpus Chrisi and Texas Southern.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Next Event

Team Stats

Lacy Gregory

Tayla Evans

Hanna Rebar

Saleen Donohoe

Players Mentioned

Tayla Evans

Lacy Gregory

Tarah Hilton

Hope Trautwein

Players Mentioned

Tayla Evans

Lacy Gregory

Tarah Hilton

Hope Trautwein

Upcoming Events