The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Tech
No. 12 Softball downs Texas Tech, 7-2
04.29.2010 | Softball
April 29, 2010
LUBBOCK, Texas -- The No. 12 Texas Softball team completed the season series sweep of Texas Tech with its 7-2 victory, Thursday night at Rocky Johnson Field. The victory improved the Longhorns to 38-10 on the year and 11-2 in Big 12 play, while the Red Raiders dropped to 35-13 overall and 7-9 in league action.
Freshman righthander Blaire Luna (25-6) earned the win for Texas after firing a complete-game, three-hitter, allowing two runs, walking two and fanning five. Tech starter Ashly Jacobs suffered the loss after surrendering four runs on two hits and walking three in 2.0 innings of work.
Texas notched its first run in the top of the first, using a one-out walk by freshman rightfielder Taylor Hoagland to start the rally. She stole second to move into scoring position and came around to score when junior catcher Amy Hooks reached on an error.
The Horns added four more runs in the third inning, taking advantage of four hits and one Texas Tech miscue. Senior centerfielder Brittany Chalk led off the frame with a solo homer to leftfield and sophomore leftfielder Courtney Craig followed suit with a solo shot to right centerfield. Hoagland followed Craig's blast with a walk and moved to second when sophomore first baseman Lexy Bennett reached on an error. Both runners advanced on a double steal before a two-run double by Hooks brought them both home to push the lead to 5-0.
Texas pushed the tally to 6-0 in the fourth when Craig connected for a one-out single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and raced home on an RBI single through the left side by Bennett.
Tech closed the margin in the bottom of the fourth, capitalizing on a Texas error to start the frame and getting on the board when second baseman Logan Hall launched a two-run home run.
Junior second baseman Raygan Feight reached on a two-base Tech error to lead off the sixth and after a second error she scored on an RBI double by Hoagland, pushing the score to 7-2.
Craig and Taylor headlined the Texas offense on the night with two hits each, while Craig added an RBI and two runs scored. Hoagland scored two runs for the Horns and Hooks came through with a pair of RBI in the victory.
Texas returns to action on Saturday, May 1 when it travels to Iowa State. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. Central.
POST-GAME NOTES
- Texas' win improved its all-time record against Texas Tech to 24-5 and 10-1 in Lubbock.
- Courtney Craig's home run in the third was her 11th of the season, moving her within one of the UT single-season record of 12 homers that is shared by four different players.
- Brittany Chalk's homer in the third was her first of the season, making her the 11th Longhorn to hit a longball this season.
POST-GAME QUOTES
Head coach Connie Clark
On the win: I'm just glad to get a 'W' in Lubbock. It was a challenging game. Some parts of the game were prettier than others, but sometimes you just have to grind things out. Our offense gave us an opportunity to get the win tonight even though we had a few errors on defense.
On Blaire Luna's performance: I wouldn't give Blaire an 'A' for focus today, but that happens. She is a young pitcher and she didn't have a terrible game by any means. We had taken a timeout in one inning and I reminded her about staying pitch-to-pitch. I told her that the only way that a team is going to get back into the game is if we issue free passes. She did a better job after that, but I think that is something that just comes with being a freshman.
On adjustments Texas can make for the Iowa State series: I liked (Amy) Hooks' focus on being able to pick up runners on base tonight. I think that is strong point for us even though we haven't had a lot of pick plays where we get outs. She has a great arm and we have talked to our infielders about being active and ready, so we can use that part of our defense as a momentum booster. I think we need to just go into the weekend playing our game and staying pitch-to-pitch. It is important for us to just play the game and not focus on the talk of who is going to win the conference. We just need to play Texas Softball and stay focused on that. If we do that, good things will happen.
