The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
North Texas
Fox's one-hit shutout lifts No. 3 Softball past North Texas, 8-0
04.14.2011 | Softball
April 14, 2011
AUSTIN, Texas - A night after suffering its first home loss of the season the third-ranked Longhorns used a one-hit shutout by freshman Rachel Fox and an eight-run outburst to down North Texas, 8-0 in five innings at McCombs Field. The victory improved the Longhorns to 35-4 and dropped the Mean Green to 17-24 overall.
Fox (15-1) carried a perfect game for 4.2 innings before allowing her first baserunner on a single with two outs in the fifth. She faced one over the minimum in her fifth complete-game shutout of the season and fanned six batters. North Texas starter Ashley Kirk (7-13) took the loss after surrendering six runs on five hits and walking two in 1.2 innings of work.
Sophomore centerfielder Brejae Washington highlighted the Texas offense in the victory, going 3-for-3 with three RBI, three runs scored and a stolen base. Junior leftfielder Courtney Craig added to the offensive tear with two hits and two run scored, while junior first baseman Lexy Bennett notched her fourth triple of the season and drove in two runs.
Texas jumped out to a 2-0 edge in the first, using back-to-back singles by sophomore rightfielder Taylor Hoagland and Washington to start the frame. Washington's single through the middle scored Hoagland who had stolen second. On the single Washington advanced on the throw to the plate, promptly stole third base and raced home on a Mean Green throwing error.
In the second, Texas sent eight hitters to the plate, recorded four hits and pushed the score to 6-0. Craig led off the inning with a single and Hoagland drew a two-out walk to put two on for Washington, who smacked an RBI double down the leftfield line to give UT a three-run edge. Bennett followed with a two run triple to the right centerfield gap and came home on an illegal pitch by UNT reliever Jackie Miller.
The Longhorns added single tallies in the third and fourth innings to end the game via the run rule. An RBI single by freshman shortstop Taylor Thom scored one run in the third and an RBI groundout by senior catcher Amy Hooks plated the final run in the fourth.
Texas returns to action on Saturday, April 16 when it plays host to Iowa State. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. Central.
POST-GAME NOTES
- The victory improved Texas' all-time record against North Texas to 8-1 and 8-0 in Austin.
- Rachel Fox tossed her second one-hit shutout of the season against the Mean Green.
- Brejae Washington notched her 11th multi-hit game of the season and her third multi-RBI game in the win.
- Lexy Bennett's triple in the second pushed Texas' season triple total to 14, which is one behind the school record of 15 set in 1998 and 2006.
POST-MATCH QUOTES
Head coach Connie Clark
On Rachel Fox's almost-perfect game: Based on the fact I saw her smiling a little bit when she went out [in the fifth inning], I think it was kind of in the back of her mind. It tends to be in the back of your mind; you try to shut it out and just go one pitch at a time. I thought she did a nice job. She had a great game and that would have been the icing on the cake, of course, but we had some great defensive plays from our defense to give her the opportunity to get that done. It was a great team effort and she pitched a great ball game. That just would have topped it off.
On bouncing back after last night's loss: I thought it was tremendous. We talked a lot about it today, just committing to the little things. The teams that work through the grind right now and keep getting better on the little things and don't rest on the success they've had are going to be the teams that finish and go deep in to the season. I thought we reset tremendously well and that our attitude was great. We learned from it and we're moving forward.
Junior leftfielder Courtney Craig
On her defensive performance today: I'm just having fun, really focused. It's good to be back on the field playing. [After the diving catch] I couldn't breathe. I landed right on my glove and it knocked the wind out of me. I just went out there and went hard being aggressive.
On the team defensive performance today: We did great. We did a complete 180 from last night, a complete turnaround. We just got our minds right, stayed strong and backed Rachel up. We did what we needed to do.
On bouncing back after last night's loss: It was all mental for us. We just needed to prove that we had that mental game to come back from a tough loss last night and prove to ourselves that we could bounce back that easily. [Coach told us] to bounce back, play Texas Softball, show that we have that grit to come back after that uppercut and show that we have the heart and drive to do what we can.
Sophomore centerfielder Brejae Washington
On her performance at the plate tonight: I was just making contact with the ball, not taking too many pitches but being selective at the same time. That was my mindset going into tonight.
On bouncing back after last night's loss: We wanted to bounce back and just prove something to ourselves. It was kind of a gut check. We wanted to just play Texas Softball. Whenever you go back to the game that you're used to playing, you end up being successful. When you play out of your game you're a little off balance, but tonight we were on.
Freshman pitcher Rachel Fox
On whether or not she knew she was on the verge of a perfect game: It's in the back of your head, but I think you mainly worry about going at each batter, trying to get ahead and just get the outs. Like I said, the W is really all that counts. It's tough that [North Texas' Courtney Bradshaw] snuck that hit in there, but it's part of the game and we came out with a win and that's all that really matters.
On what worked for her tonight: We got ahead of the batters. We got to stretch the zone a little bit. They were helping because they were really aggressive, so we got to go up and down and sort of mix the pitches really well. Hooks did a great job behind the plate mixing and I think that's why we were so successful tonight. We kind of wanted to just go right at the batters and get ahead, getting the outs that we needed to and get back in the dugout as quickly as we can to score.
