The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Tech
No. 24 Softball shuts out Texas Tech, 2-0
04.15.2009 | Softball
April 15, 2009
LUBBOCK, Texas -- Texas sophomore righthander Brittany Barnhill tossed a complete game shutout as the 24th-ranked Longhorns downed Texas Tech, 2-0, Wednesday afternoon. The Longhorns' victory improved UT to 32-14 on the year and 8-4 in the Big 12, while the Red Raiders fell to 14-34 and 2-10 in league play.
Barnhill (20-9) earned the win for the Horns after firing 7.0 innings, scattering three hits, walking none and fanning two. Texas Tech righthander Ashley Jacobs (9-18) suffered the loss for the Red Raiders, throwing 7.0 innings, allowing two runs on nine hits, while walking three and striking out four.
In the fourth, Texas broke a scoreless tie with a pair of back-to-back doubles. Barnhill started the Texas rally with a one-out double to right centerfield and pinch runner Crystal Saenz came around to score on freshman third baseman Nadia Taylor's RBI double to straightaway centerfield.
The Longhorns added to their lead in the sixth, using a one-out walk by junior designated player Loryn Johnson and a single by catcher Amy Hooks to start the rally. A fielder's choice moved pinch runner Raygan Feight to third base and a passed ball allowed Feight to score, moving the tally to 2-0.
Texas returns to action on Saturday, April 18 when it kicks off a two-game set with Kansas at McCombs Field. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Connie Clark
On the victory: It was good to get the outcome. Regardless of the losses in the last three games we have done some things very well. It is just the nature of the game with us hitting the ball hard right at people. We got back to thinking about having productive outs, hitting behind runners, moving runners and trying to capitalize when we had them in scoring position. That was our mindset the last couple of days in practice and I thought we came out and executed pretty well today.
On Brittany Barnhill's performance: I thought Barnhill did a nice job. Texas Tech is very aggressive. They don't stand around and watch many pitches. They put the bat on the ball and we saw them go out aggressive, so Barnhill was able to keep her pitch count down because they helped her so much. We were also able to play some good defense with all of the groundballs that Barnhill got for us. I thought we had a good effort on defense. One of the things that we have been talking about is making sure that we anticipate the short game better and we made the proper adjustments in that regard as well.
On what the team needs to do down the stretch: I think we need to continue to have productive outs offensively. We are very patient at the plate, we are getting some good looks and our on-base percentage is good, so when we get runners on base we just need to have productive outs. Whether we choose to bunt them over or if we choose to swing we need to have productive outs. When we do that we really get our offense flowing and we are tough to beat. We also need to continue to get solid outings from Barnhill. She can keep us in games when she keeps the ball in the park and lets us play defense.
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