The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Missouri
Softball splits with Missouri, falls 4-1 in game two
04.20.2008 | Softball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas senior righthander Meagan Denny tossed her third complete game in four days, but the Longhorns managed just one run as they fell to Missouri, 4-1, Sunday afternoon in Big 12 Conference play. Texas' loss to the Tigers snapped the Horns' season-best five game winning streak, but capped a week in which UT posted a 4-1 record.
The Longhorns split the two-game weekend series with the Tigers and moved their season mark to 24-17-2 and 8-6 in the Big 12, while Mizzou improved to 40-13 and 7-5 in league play.
Denny (17-6) suffered the loss for UT after tossing 7.0 innings, scattering four runs on 10 hits, walking one and fanning six. Missouri starter Stacy Delaney (16-3) earned the victory for the Tigers, allowing one run on two hits in 7.0 innings of work, walking one and recording five strikeouts.
Missouri grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first, taking advantage of a leadoff single and stolen base by Rhea Taylor and an RBI single by first baseman Amanda Renth. Texas junior catcher Kacie Gaskin evened the score at one in the UT second, hammering her third home run of the season and second homer of the week over the leftfield wall.
In the third, the Tigers tallied two runs, plating their first tally on a sacrifice fly by Renth. Mizzou added another run on third baseman Lindsey Ubrun's RBI single to leftfield that scored Taylor, giving the Tigers a two-run edge. Taylor led off the fifth with an infield single, stole second, advanced on Julie Silver's base hit and stole home to put MU in front 4-1.
Gaskin and junior third baseman Crystal Saenz recorded the Horns' only two hits of the contest, with Gaskin also reaching on a walk.
The Longhorns return to action at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23 when they travel to Waco to take on Baylor in game two of their two-game season series.
POSTGAME QUOTES
JUNIOR CATCHER Kacie Gaskin
On a slow offensive outing: You just have to keep doing the same things and sometimes the results happen and sometimes they don't. The big thing with Missouri's pitcher was not to let her change-up throw you off too much.You just had to get by that and wait and fight for a better pitch.
On her at-bats today: I was getting right on her pitches and I got walked on my second at-bat, so I felt like I had a couple of good at-bats today.I didn't get too many hits, but I did get on base.When you keep fighting for pitches, you are bound to get one to hit.
On Missouri's hitting: They made some very good adjustments today.A couple of their hitters made some great adjustments on outside pitches and they let the rise-ball go. I think they just did a much better job making contact on the ball today.
SENIOR PITCHER Meagan Denny
On making one of her last home starts: I went into today trying not to get emotional, and just focus on the game.I know they saw the way I pitched all day yesterday, so I knew I really had to focus hard today.After the game, it was very emotional because this was my last conference start at home.
On her pitching today: I had the same game plan coming into today as I did yesterday, because it was working pretty well.They landed a couple of infield hits, and they just had my number today. I think I pitched as well today as I did yesterday, except they just had my number down today.I went to my change-up in the fourth inning and that got them off balance.I think that was a turning point for me in the game.
HEAD COACH Connie Clark
On the biggest difference between the two games: The biggest difference was that their lead-off hitters were on base today. That was one of our big goals. Their lead-off hitter runs as well as anybody in the country. The nice thing is that we didn't beat ourselves and we didn't issue any free passes. They just put the ball on the ground and they run exceptionally well.I think that was the difference on the day.
On the emotion of the game: Once the first pitch goes off, I think they get into their game mode.They did let the emotion show up after the game was finished, but Meagan [Denny] and MicKayla [Padilla] did a good job of playing pitch-to-pitch. I am really proud of Meagan.I thought Missouri made some adjustments and they started keying on her rise-ball, but we made some adjustments in the middle of the game to get her to throw her change-up a bit more to make her rise-ball more effective.To be honest, she did a great job of that and she took it upon herself.
