The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Cal State Fullerton
No. 24 Softball defeats and ties No. 17 CSU Fullerton in final day of tournament
02.17.2008 | Softball
AUSTIN, Texas -- The 24th-ranked Texas Softball used a complete game shutout performance by senior righthander Meagan Denny in game one to knock off No. 17 Cal State Fullerton, 1-0 before tying the Titans 4-4 in game two. The final game concluded the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational and ended in a tie due to Fullerton's travel schedule.
Texas (5-2-1) completed the tourney with a 2-1-1 mark, while Fullerton (4-3-1) concluded the weekend with a 1-2-1 mark
Denny (5-0) tossed 7.0 innings in game one, allowing just three hits, while fanning 11 batters in her second straight complete game shutout. She has now tossed 18.1 consecutive scoreless innings, including a 10 inning shutout performance in UT's first game of the tournament against Penn State.
The Longhorns lone run in game one came in the sixth when junior catcher Kacie Gaskin jumpstarted the rally by reaching on a fielder's choice and stealing second. The Titans retired the next batter, but senior leftfielder MicKayla Padilla's two-out RBI single to rightfield allowed Gaskin to race home and put the Horns ahead, 1-0.
Fullerton starter Jessica Doucette (1-3) suffered the loss in game one, throwing a complete game three-hitter, fanning seven, walking three and allowing just one run.
In game two, Texas leapt out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first inning, taking advantage of back-to-back singles by Gaskin and sophomore infielder Loryn Johnson to start the rally. Gaskin stole second prior to Johnson's single, advanced to third on the hit and came home when freshman catcher Amy Hooks reached on a fielder's choice. Johnson came across when sophomore leftfielder Brittany Chalk reached on a throwing error by the CSUF shortstop and Hooks scored on junior third baseman Crystal Saenz' RBI groundout.
The Titans rallied to plate one run in the third on leftfielder Torrie Anderson's solo home run down the leftfield line. Fullerton tacked on two more runs in the fifth, using a rally-starting single by centerfielder Jenna Wheeler and a double by Anderson to get things going. Both Fullerton runners came home on first baseman Jessica Doucette's two-run single that knotted the game at three. The Horns reclaimed the edge in the bottom of the fifth when junior pinch hitter Brittany Reliford laced a double to left centerfield to start the frame. Junior infielder Desiree Williams followed with a sacrifice bunt and Reliford came home on an RBI single by Gaskin.
Fullerton manufactured a run in the seventh, using a leadoff single by Wheeler and a sacrifice bunt to set the table for Doucette who doubled home Wheeler to tied the game at 4-4. Texas threatened in the bottom seventh, but the inning ended with Gaskin stranded on third after notching a one-out triple. Gaskin led the Horns in the game with a 3-for-4 , one RBI and one run scored effort.
Texas returns to action Friday, Feb. 22 when it takes on UNLV at the Palm Springs Classic in Cathedral City, Calif. The game is slated for a 2:30 p.m. Central start.
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Connie Clark
General comment: I thought we made good adjustments from Friday to today. I thought we competed much, much better today than we did on Friday and that is what it's about. We've talked about having a consistent approach and being aggressive and I felt we were much better with that today.
On the lack of offense on Friday: I don't think we were aggressive enough. We were thinking a lot and we weren't consistent with our approach at the plate, therefore we didn't have good things happen. Today we had more of a purpose when we went up there. We had a higher level of expectation and we committed to it. When you commit to something, good things usually happen.
On the play of Meagan Denny: She is doing a great job, and we need to give her the ball as often as we can. In tournament play we are still trying to develop Brittany Barnhill in her first year and get her facing some top teams and get Erin Tresselt some relief, but it is great to have Denny be the stopper that she is. She is really committed to living on her strengths, yet setting up those strengths better with some off-speed stuff. I think that's been the difference.
On freshman Brittany Barnhill's outing: I have been pleased with her. I actually thought she had a very good outing today. She was awfully close to finishing that game. I wanted to have her finish it, but Erin Tresselt is a ground ball specialist and at that point we needed to keep the ball in the infield and try to get out of the inning. I was trying to stay with her as long as we could. She made some very good adjustments throughout and today was probably her best performance that she has had thus far. The experience that she is getting is really going to help us down the stretch.
On the goals for next weekend's tournament: We want to keep getting better. We had a lot of things thrown at us this weekend. I think we learned a lot and we need to try to use the experience that we gained. All three teams that were at this tournament were quality teams. We just need to utilize that experience and make sure we're building on it, because obviously Palm Springs will have a good field of teams.
Senior pitcher Meagan Denny On her 10-inning outing on Friday: That was a long game and those Penn State hitters were swinging. They had a lot of strong, aggressive swings and I had to make sure that I didn't put anything out over the plate. I really had to work the corners and maybe even put it a little bit off, just so they couldn't do anything with my pitches. Luckily it turned out that I was doing pretty well. My team hung in there and competed the entire game and we came out with the win.
On how frustrating it was to pitch seven shut-out innings without the team scoring a run: You can't look at it that way. I just kept thinking about the next inning and the next inning and the next inning. You just have to keep the mindset of taking it inning-by-inning and pitch-by-pitch. You can't get frustrated or else you've lost.
